Small Surprises, Big Consequences R
by Trackula
Summary: Kim meets a strange young girl, and through her learns more about her rival then she ever thought possible. New and Improved Redux Edition! Kigo, Please R
1. Small Surprise

Here we go again.

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 1: Small Surprise**

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Anne Possible was in the middle of vacuuming her home when the sound of heavy banging at the door broke her concentration. She was so surprised by the sudden noise that she forgot to walk over and answer the door. During these few seconds the doorbell rang several times. Anne turned and looked across the room as the door shook with every collision. She had no idea who could be so unbelievably rude, but she intended to find out, if only to stop the noise. Said noise was attracting the three other present members of the Possible household.

"Hold on, I'm coming!" she shouted at the door and the noise was quickly replaced by blessed silence. Kim and the Tweebs, having heard the loud noise from their rooms, came over to see who might be causing such a commotion. The twin siblings were curious as to what caller would come to their home in such a manner. Kim on the other hand only approached because she had a bad feeling about it and her intuitions were rarely if ever wrong.

With caution, Anne opened the door and looked out. At first she saw nothing but the empty street.

"Little lower," said a young voice in strained frustration. Anne looked down and was surprised at the sight before her. Kim remained by the stairs, but Jim and Tim pushed past one another to see who stood in front of their mother.

A little girl probably no older then the Tweebs stood with her arms crossed and a scowl carved into her face before Anne, looking up at the neurosurgeon with obvious annoyance. Her hair was jet-black and cut just above her shoulders, and her piercing eyes were an emerald green. Her skin was deathly white and had a pasty, smudged quality to it, and a bit of dirt stained her left cheek. She wore a dark gray hooded sweatshirt at least two sizes too large and black shorts with scuffed sneakers. Almost all of her clothes were matted down with dirt and grime. The young girl would have been the spitting image of the stereotypical movie orphan were it not for her contemptuous sneer.

Dr. Possible quickly found her bearings and spoke, "Um, can I help you, dear? Are you a friend of Jim and Tim?" she asked. It was a fair question considering their similar ages. The twins rarely had friends over despite being fairly popular at their school, and they usually used their time at home to find out new ways to blow things up or send them into orbit (preferably both).

"Uh... No, mom," said Tim.

"We don't know her," added Jim. Although silently they both agreed that they wouldn't mind getting to know the girl. As far as the Tweebs were concerned the mysterious girl was very cute even _if_ she was glaring at the two of them through Dr. Possible's legs.

"Tch, as _if_. I'm looking for Kim Possible. She here, or do I gotta go track her preppy ass down?" Her tone had an air of rude entitlement more appropriate for a member of the royal family than the poor Victorian chimney sweep she resembled.

Dr. Possible was a woman of incredible patience, but she didn't enjoy being talked down to by someone less than a third of her age and half her size. Anne was about to open her mouth to scold the girl, but she was cut off when Kim pushed the Tweebs aside and stepped up next to her mother. She had heard the girl say her name from the stairs and figured that maybe she was there to request her help for a mission. After all, it was wholly plausible that the kid just didn't know how to use her site.

Kim put on her best babysitting smile. "Hi, sweetie. I'm Kim. Did you need something from me?" The little dark-haired girl turned her attention from the doctor to the cheerleader. Kim was surprised to find the girl moving her eyes up and down her body. It was as though the pale child was sizing Kim up.

The little girl furrowed her brow. "_You're_ Kim Possible? I dunno, I guess I expected someone… _taller_. Oh, and I'm not anyone's 'sweetie,' so you can stop talking to me like I'm retarded."

Kim frowned at the response. She wasn't used to offering her assistance to people with such a rude attitude. If this girl wanted her help she was certainly going about it the wrong way. She'd heard the way this kid spoke to her mother and the twins, and she was frankly getting sick of it.

"Listen here, kiddo--" She was cut off when the girl held up a finger and turned towards the Doctor again.

"A little privacy, please?" she said, offended. Dr, Possible sighed and turned to get back into the house. If the girl had come to her daughter, then it really was no business of hers. Besides, that alleged "little girl" had seemed pretty insufferable to Anne.

When Anne left the doorway, Kim stepped outside and closed the door behind her. She was used to occasionally keeping certain missions somewhat hush-hush, and she figured that this might very well be that sort of situation.

"Okay, we're in private. What can I help you with?"

The girl looked around cautiously with an expression revealing that she had some issues with Kim's definition of "private". After confirming that there were no onlookers she looked Kim in the eye. Something about the young girl nagged at Kim like an annoying itch. She felt like she met her before, several times in fact, but she couldn't place her. It was amazingly irritating.

"Okay, so I read that, uh, past mission dossier thingy you put on that site of yours, and, uhh…" She said cautiously. Kim was at a loss. If the girl knew about her site, then why not contact her through it? It wasn't like it was hard to use or anything. The dark-haired girl continued.

"So, like, that blue guy's thief lady, calls herself Shego? You know her, right?" Kim was taken aback. What was a young girl asking about Shego for? Yes, Kim did indeed _know_ the pale-green woman, but they weren't exactly pals. She didn't have the woman's phone number or anything.

The girl huffed and stamped her foot. "Well? Do you or don't you? Chop-chop, lady!"

"Okay, let's back up a bit here. You haven't even told me your name yet. That sounds like a better place to start things off." Kim said, trying _very_ hard to sound patient.

The girl furrowed her brow in annoyance. After what felt like a minute she spoke.

"...Agni, you can call me Agni." She virtually spat the words at Kim.

"Agni what?" Kim asked. She got the feeling that she was being given an alias.

"Agni None-of-your-damn-business, that's what!" The emerald-eyed girl snapped.

"Hey listen, I don't like being jerked around by people asking for my help, so cool it!" Kim snapped. The girl was working her last nerve, and the feeling of familiarity she gave off made the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. The green-eyed child grit her teeth and looked away.

"Sorry," she said barely above a whisper. To Kim it seemed like the girl apologizing took all the willpower she had in her. The cheerleader decided to cut the girl a break.

"Apology accepted. Now what were you saying about Shego?" Kim didn't want to admit it but she was very curious about Agni. There was just something so _familiar_ about the girl…

"So you _do_ know her. Good. That makes things easier. Listen, I need you to take me to her."

For a moment Kim thought she had heard the girl wrong. However after looking at the resolute determination all over the girl's face, she understood that was not the case.

"_What_? Take _you_ to _Shego_? Are you crazy? Do they, like, have an asylum for little girls around here that I don't know about?" Kim said in mocking disbelief. If the girl had gone to her site, she would know that Shego was a wanted criminal. The pale-green thief had warrants out for her arrest in almost every country in the world, not to mention the fact that she was extremely dangerous. Agni merely raised an eyebrow at the reaction.

"I certainly am _not_ crazy!" she snapped. "Listen, I just want to find her. I'll pay you if that's what you want."

Kim shook her head. She never asked for money and wasn't about to start with some clearly confused little girl. "I don't need your money." Then something occurred to the teenager that should have come to mind much sooner. "Hey, where are your parents?"

"My _grandparents_ are back home in Go City." Agni stated curtly. If Kim were drinking she would have reflexively done a spit-take after hearing that. Go City was three states over, and the girl in front of her couldn't have been more then twelve. "You who with the what now? You traveled all the way here _by yourself_?" she stated, shocked.

"Um… _Duh_." she said as if it were obvious. "There's no way Gram or Gramp would ever let me come here so I had to take some initiative. It was no big deal."

"No big deal!? I have to get you back home! Like _yesterday_!" Kim yelped. The girl could have gotten herself killed just trying to get to Middleton. Kim would never admit it, but she was pretty impressed. At hearing the redhead's shocked outburst, the girl shook her head vehemently.

"No, what _you_ have to do is get _me_ to Shego. So how 'bout it?"

Kim ground her teeth in frustration. How could one little girl cause her such grief in such a short period of time? It was looking to be such a good morning too. This constant verbal abuse was getting absurdly aggravating, so she decided to just get to the heart of the matter rather than indulge Agni's sarcasm any further.

"Why do you want to meet Shego so badly? She's on the most wanted lists of at least eleven countries, she shoots flaming green death bolts out of her hands, and she's mean to me and calls me names! What part of that is even _remotely_ appealing?"

The girl crossed her arms and scoffed. "I'm a _huge_ fan. I thought you could introduce me to my idol." The girl said laying on the sarcasm as thick as molasses.

Kim sighed. She reached down and grabbed Agni's hand, and pulled her within the house. Her first (and as far as she was concerned, _only_) order of business was to get Agni back to her grandparents as soon as possible. First she would get her something to eat and then they would be off. While Kim was loath to call in a favor for something so minor, she was left with little choice.

"So," said a cautiously optimistic Agni, "you gonna take me to Shego then?"

"The only place _I'm_ going to take you is back to your grandparents." Kim said hotly. She was tired of playing games and she wanted to get this over with as soon as possible. The girl was just unpleasant to be around. At hearing Kim's response, Agni began to tug herself away from Kim's hand. However, said hand was wrapped _very_ securely around Agni's wrist, so the only visible effect of her maneuvers was to make Kim frown slightly.

"I _shoulda_... just done this... _myself_! Let go... of my _hand_... you _dumb_... _idiot_! Nnagh!" she said, bracing her legs for another tug. Kim was by now thoroughly unsurprised that the girl swore. It seemed to fit with her overall attitude. What did surprise her was how strongly she was pulling to get free. A normal little girl wouldn't be that strong, and if Kim didn't have such a good grip on her she would have broken free by now.

"Calm down. When was the last time you ate?" She couldn't imagine it was anytime soon; at the sound of the word "ate" the girl's stomach responded almost immediately with a strained rumble. She tried to cover it up by snapping at Kim.

"_Shut up_! I can take care of myself, thanks!"

"I'm sure. You expect to find a woman like Shego when you can't even remember to feed yourself. _Uh-huh_." Kim heard the girl mumble something under her breath. "What was that?"

"I _said_: I thought I'd need all my money to bribe you into helping me, so I couldn't waste it on food." She reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out a surprisingly thick wad of bills. " I have five hundred dollars here and it's all yours if you can get me to Shego."  
Kim did a double-take at the sight. "What's a little girl like you doing with so much cash?"

"_Hey_! I'm _not_ little, and I'm spoiled rotten by my grandparents, that's what."

"Spoiled is right…" Kim said under her breath.

She would never accept money from an adult, let alone a child. However, as she prepared a tuna sandwich for Agni, she couldn't help but wonder what would make the girl go to such lengths to meet a woman like Shego. She asked that very question, as she handed the girl the sandwich. Rather then answer, the pale young girl threw her an annoyed glare and nearly shoved the entire sandwich down her throat, barely able to hold in the small sigh of happiness from finally eating a real meal after three days of travel. She'd had nothing but granola bars to keep her strength up, and those ran out the night before.

Kim sat down across from her and watched as the girl ate, wondering all the while who she was and why she seemed so familiar. Agni sensed this and looked up at Kim with annoyance before swallowing her current mouthful.

"Stop staring at me. It's creepy."

The teen sighed, silently deciding to take the girl home after she finished her sandwich. As she thought of this, the Kimmunicator's familiar ringtone filled the kitchen. Kim quickly answered it and tried to ignore Agni as she looked over her shoulder at the strange device.

"Hey Wade, What's the sitch?"

"Hey Kim, listen..." He paused when he saw the small face looking over Kim's shoulder.

"Who is that?"

Kim looked behind her and sighed. "Hold on Wade." She turned away from the Kimmunicator and looked Agni in the eye. "I want you to stay right here and finish your sandwich. I'll get back to you in a minute."

Agni sighed and crossed her arms. "Yeah, whatever…"

Kim went up to her room and closed her door behind her for some privacy. The last thing she wanted was that girl getting any bad ideas. She turned her attention back to Wade.

"Sorry about that, Wade."

"Who was that?"

"It's a long story. So, the sitch?"

"Oh yeah, sorry, I guess I spaced for a bit. Anyway, seems our favorite blue inventor has decided to enclose all of Las Vegas in an ice dome. Sounds like he's run out of ideas, huh?"

"Drakken, really? What are the odds of that…" Well, now the redhead knew where Shego was. Not that she had any intention of bringing Agni anywhere but home in Go City.

"Kim?"

"Oh, sorry, Wade. Guess we're all spacing a little today. So just the standard 'fight Shego, stop Drakken' bit, then?"

"I haven't heard otherwise. Your ride should be there any minute." He turned towards another screen and began typing a new set of commands, "I'll just call Ron and--"

Kim's eyes widened suddenly. "NO!"

Wade looked up, unprepared for the strange urgency in her words. "Kim, what is it? Something wrong?"

Kim bit her inner cheek and collected her thoughts, "No, no, I just… I just would really rather... Look, I can handle this, Wade."

Wade looked at Kim through the screen and frowned. "You sure, Kim? That's not like you."

Kim looked away, her thoughts on a subject that she found very sore and fresh. _It's still way too soon, and_ way _too awkward._ She looked back up at Wade and gave a forced smile. "So not the drama, Wade. Ron needs a break every so often."

Wade raised an eyebrow. "As opposed to the _constant_ break that is his non-world-saving life?"

Kim frowned. "Uh, well... Look, just trust me on this, Wade."

The boy genius scrutinized her through the screen for a moment before he sighed and shrugged. Kim could sense his disapproval. "Whatever you say, Kim." He cut the connection.

Kim sat back on her bed quietly; her guilty conscience formed a cold lump deep in her gut. She sat like that for a minute sifting through her tumultuous emotions, then stood up to go get her mission gear.

"We leaving now?"

At hearing the sudden voice, Kim let out a shriek and fell off of her bed. She quickly turned with her fists at the ready only to see Agni casually sitting across from her on the far side of the bed.

"Agni! How did you get in here?" The redhead exclaimed. She had been facing the door the entire time, so she knew that the girl hadn't entered through there.

"Through the window, stupid," the preteen stated as though it were obvious.

"This is the third floor!" Kim hollered. Agni just shrugged dismissively.

To have heard any of Kim's conversation with Wade, the girl had to have ran around the house, climbed up to Kim's window from a wall with no suitable handholds and gotten through the closed window, all within a minute and a half. On top of that, she did it without making any sounds that would have alerted Kim.

_'Who_ is_ this girl?'_

"Shego works for that Drakken dude, right? The guy you're going after? Well what great timing! Let's go!" Agni grinned, maybe for the first time since Kim met her. The expression made the younger girl look very cute. Despite this, Kim just looked at her levelly. She had some bad news for the girl.

---Two hours later---

Kim hoped that the bratty little preteen wasn't giving her mother too hard of a time. When she told Agni that she was leaving her in the care of her parents until she got back, the girl had thrown a fit hard enough to shake the house. Kim had actually considered tying her to the bed to insure the young girl didn't follow her. She was currently in the passenger compartment of a military transport chopper waiting to take the plunge towards the icy dome rapidly becoming visible in the distance.

Kim couldn't help but feel that the ride was unbearably dull without Ron sitting at her side, filling the silence with whatever inanity popped into his head. However, thinking about the blond now also filled Kim with anxiety, and left everything muddled and confused.

_'It's only been a week and a half since the breakup. I'm sure everything will be back to normal soon… at least I hope._' She shook her head to clear her thoughts.

_'I can keep dwelling on my relationship problems_ after _I get back from this mission._' Kim thought with more than a little bitterness.

_'For now, I'll just deal with what I'm good at._' She pulled out her Kimmunicator and began to review the information Wade sent over.

Apparently Drakken was demanding a ransom of fifty billion dollars from the state of Nevada in exchange for his release of the city. She got so frustrated sometimes with the blue scientist. He certainly had above-average talent in his field, but the man was just an utter lackbrain in every other capacity, common sense most of all. His greatest achievement, it seemed, was keeping Shego on his payroll.

Thinking about the green thief just brought Kim's thoughts back to Agni. The girl was a mystery, that was for sure, and not one easily solved considering how tight-lipped she was being. There was more to this girl wanting to meet Shego than she was seeing. Maybe she would ask Shego during their inevitable fight. Maybe the green thief would even have answers to her questions.

Looking down, Kim noted that the ice dome was now right underneath the chopper. She prepared herself for the freefall, checking her parachute.

"We're supposed to land on that snowglobe thing, right?" said a voice from behind.

Kim shrieked and whipped around, almost falling from the helicopter in the process. Agni was sitting behind her wearing a parachute that barely fit her and staring calmly while waiting for an answer.

"Holy...! Agni, what are you doing here?" Kim shouted. This was getting ridiculous. Kim simply refused to believe that the young girl had been hiding behind her the entire time. Agni just looked up at her with an expression that said the reason was pretty obvious. Kim grit her teeth.

"Listen, there is _no way_ I'm taking you on this mission with me! You're just a little girl with an obvious _death wish_! This is dangerous work, and you could get _hurt_!" Kim shouted without pause. She needed to take a deep breath after she got all that out. In response, Agni merely crossed her arms.

"You finished? Good. Now listen, I'm going down their one way or another. Either you take me with you or I go it on my own." Kim realized that she really wasn't given much of a choice. If she left the girl up on the chopper there was a very good chance that she would escape on her own and get herself killed. If she went with Kim then at least the redhead could keep an eye on her. Kim slapped her forehead and groaned.

"Fine," she said after taking a deep sigh of defeat, "but listen up, I don't want you leaving my side for _anything_! You understand?" Agni's eyes lit up and she nodded vehemently.

_'It's strange, the girl acts so mature most of the time, but she seems so young when she's happy, almost like a normal girl. Well, as long as you ignore her skin tone.'_

After quickly hashing out what they were going to do, both girls jumped from the chopper. Kim made sure Agni kept a firm grip around her waist as they fell towards the massive ice structure. It surprised the redhead that the girl took to such dangerous business so calmly. Agni had a strange look of determination on her face that surprised Kim quite a bit. After a moment of waiting and preparation the redhead released the parachute. Moments later the two landed safely on the surface of the dome. Using a cutting laser built into Kim's lipstick, the unlikely duo made their way inside.

A large metal sphere floated high above the city underneath the ice-wall. It was smooth and shiny chrome with a circumference of nearly three hundred feet. If Wade's description was accurate, that was the machine Drakken was using to freeze over the state. It had been stolen from a top secret military research facility not ten hours earlier by none other than Shego herself, and Drakken had wasted no time using it since she remembered to retrieve its user manual (she remembered her mistakes after the weather machine incident).

Using her grappling hook, Kim swung Agni and herself over to the sphere and made their way up to its barely visible entrance hatch. Using her cutting laser Kim made a hole big enough for the two to fit through.

The entire time the hero thoroughly warned the young girl to keep close to her no matter what, to which Agni's usual rejoinder was: "I'm not deaf, y'know!"

The moment Kim entered the facility three of Drakken's hired thugs were upon her. Of course, since they were _Drakken's_ hired thugs, they afforded her little difficulty. All three hit the ground in just under a minute after they'd charged her. Kim wondered if any had alerted the rest of the ship to their presence. She hoped not, not because of her own safety but because keeping an eye on Agni was proving to be a chore. The girl seemed like she was always trying to run ahead.

Unexpectedly Kim heard a whistle from behind. She turned around to find Agni was looking down at the beaten bodies with admiration, and then nudged one with her shoe.

"Hmm... this really _is_ your thing, huh? You're better than I thought you'd be."

"Really?" Kim asked in surprise. It was the first compliment the young girl had given her. In fact it was the first positive thing that the young girl had said all day.

"Yeah, I figured you'd really suck. I mean, I keep sneaking up on you and I'm only twelve."

Kim's mood soured, "You're a little brat, you know that?"

Agni shrugged, "Runs in my family."

"Some family," Kim hissed under her breath as they made their way through several more rooms and a few more guards. By Kim's calculations they should reach the control center very soon. The cheerleader rounded the corner, making sure that Agni stayed well behind her before a very familiar green and black sight filled her vision.

Shego stood in front of the cheerleader with both hands ignited. The older woman's eyes were half lidded in a look of extreme boredom. She smirked when she saw Kim and pushed herself off the wall where she was leaning.

"Ahh, Pumpkin. There's _finally_ something for me to do in this oversized ball bearing. I'm glad you were so prompt. I was starting to get worried." She took a crouched fighting stance to compensate for the narrow corridor they stood in.

"Alright, Kimmie. Let's do thi-" Her words died off as Agni stepped out from behind Kim and looked up at the pale-green thief. The woman's stance dropped all at once, and she just stood and stared at the girl in open shock, completely forgetting about Kim.

Kim wasn't sure how to react. Something unseen appeared to be passing between the two. She'd never seen the pale thief look so surprised. Then they started talking, and Kim's world was turned on its head.

"Agni…" Shego said, in a mix of both shock and denial.

Agni looked up at the dark-haired woman and smiled. "Hi, Mom."

Chapter 1: End

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**Author's Notes: As you've guessed Ron will have a stronger presence this time around, but subtly. Also to clarify the timeline for this story, it takes place a week and a half before senior year begins. So between seasons three and four to be clear. That is all.**

**Thanks again Fford.**


	2. Impossibilities

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 2: Impossibilities**

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In all of Kim's seventeen years of life, she'd never been this confused. All of a sudden those nagging suspicions and strange feelings were beginning to make an odd sort of sense to the redhead. Agni looked and acted almost exactly like Shego! No wonder she couldn't place the similarities; as far as the redhead was concerned, it was _impossible_. Shego the _master criminal_? Shego the _thief_? Shego the _mercenary_? _That_ Shego, a mother? _Never_! The thought that her rival had a family of _any_ sort was strange enough. Kim was _still_ slightly weirded out by the existence of Shego's brothers. Then again, _that_ idea was at least semi-plausible. This new development, however, had Kim wondering when Ashton Kutcher was going to pop up out of nowhere and laugh at her.

Agni had said she was twelve years old, the same as the Tweebs, and Kim had believed her. But that couldn't be right, could it? How old was Shego if it were true? In all of Kim's investigations into the dark-haired thief's life, she was never even able to get her real name, let alone her age. Everything about the super-powered woman was shrouded in mystery. As near as Wade could tell during his searches, she must have meticulously stolen or deleted almost all government files on herself. Kim had managed to find out exactly three things about Shego in the years she'd known her: she had four siblings, used to be a superhero, and came from Go City. Once she'd learned these facts, Kim had constructed several theories as to why Shego left Team Go, all of which were either hobbled or obliterated as soon as Kim heard Agni say that Shego was her mother.

'_Shego does not equal... _Mommy_! It makes no sense!'_

Kim was jolted out of her reverie when she felt Agni push past her and run up to Shego, throwing her arms around the stunned woman's waist. Shego, for her part, was still looking down at the girl in shock, having forgotten that Kim was even in the hallway with them. A deep part of Kim's brain kept trying to tell her that now would be a good time to save the people of Las Vegas, but the rest of her brain was deaf to its suggestions. All she was concerned with was why Agni came to her for help in the first place.

Shego seemed to regain her bearings while looking down at the young girl currently hugging her arms around her. Her expression seemed troubled, but soon became resolute. Bringing her right arm up, she bared her wrist and revealed a small watch-communicator. She pressed the call button and Drakken's nasal voice came through clearly.

"Shego? What is it? Did you stop Kim Possible?" There was a pause. "My new sub-zero base is going to self destruct, isn't it?" To Kim's ears, Drakken sounded both forlorn and resigned.

"Uh, Doc… listen, something's come up and I gotta take off." Shego said in a somewhat distracted voice.

"What? But Shego, you're on the clock! We're in the middle of a big operation! Really big! And _expensive_! The guards alone-"

Kim snorted. "Took less than five minutes to get through. You got robbed, Drakken."

"Oh, for - she's interrupting me on my communicator now too?" There was a distant sound of Drakken kicking something impotently. "Nnngg... Shego, come _on_!"

Shego growled into the communicator, eliciting a squeak of fear from the man. "Okay, _listen up_, Dr. D! I'm taking a personal day, _got it_? If you wanna make a big _thing_ outta this, then cancel my damn contract!" Her tone brooked absolutely no argument.

"But Shego, I-"

"_No buts_!" Shego hissed and cut the communication. She turned her attention back to the child wrapped around her midsection. After a moment of thought, the thief looked down at Agni and placed her hand gingerly on the girl's shoulder, as though the girl might vanish if pressure were applied. It was the first time Kim had ever seen the green woman look so vulnerable. The redhead was beginning to feel self-conscious at seeing all of this, like some voyeur. However, Shego didn't seem to mind or even _notice_ Kim's presence. She just stared off into space.

The green woman's voice cracked when she tried to say something to her daughter, so she stopped and cleared her throat first.

"H-hey, kid. You, uh… what are you doing here...?" Shego managed to ask, and then winced. It clearly didn't come out the way she intended. Seeing Shego so tongue tied and nervous was vexing the redhead, who was used to her proud and arrogant declarations. Agni just looked up at the woman she identified as her mother and smiled brightly.

"I wanted to see you. So I went and did it. Simple, right?" The young girl acted like she didn't notice the heavy atmosphere in the room. Shego furrowed her brow at the response.

"Ah, you, um, you really shouldn't have just shown up like this. Your grandparents are probably going to think I kidnapped you, y'know?"

Agni mood suddenly soured and she averted her gaze. "Pfft. Screw 'em."

Kim decided that it was well past time for her to leave the hallway. She and Shego had a very professional relationship that was quickly becoming deeply personal. She doubted that Shego or Agni would appreciate her presence and Kim was beginning to feel _really_ uncomfortable. However, when she began to slink around the two for her escape, Shego's hand struck out of nowhere and grabbed Kim by her collar, pushing her hard against the metal wall. Kim looked up quickly and grabbed Shego's wrist to make her let go, but the black-haired thief's grip was like steel and her gaze bore deep into the younger woman.

"Hey there, Cupcake, how ya doin'? Blond jackass out sick? Yeah, whatever - see, here's what's gonna happen now. You, Princess, _you_ are going to tell me _right now_ why _you_ were carting around _my_ daughter on one of _your_ missions. If you choose not to tell me this vital piece of information... well, it's _vital_ information, get me?" While Kim struggled to release herself, she was surprised when Agni suddenly spoke up.

"For the record, I didn't really give her much choice. I sorta forced her to help me." the young girl said casually. In Kim's opinion, the girl's matter-of-fact tone belied any altruistic intentions.

"You... _forced_ Kim Possible to help you?" Shego asked, craning one of her eyebrows.

"Yeah, cool, huh? You proud of me?" Agni asked, smiling. Apparently, manipulating Kim into marching to the child's tune was an act worthy of her mother's praise. Shego reached forward and gently ruffled the younger girl's hair. '_Okay, scratch "apparently."'_

"Sure I am. It's hard enough for _me_ to deal with her." Shego smiled, but it was a forced expression. After a few seconds past she let go of Kim's shirt and knelt down so that she was at eye level with Agni.

"Let's go get something to eat. It's getting late, and I bet you haven't had dinner."

"Despite my best efforts..." Kim grumbled.

Agni grinned and grabbed her mother by the hand. "Yeah, let's go!"

As the two started walking back the way Kim originally came Shego stopped and without turning around spoke out to the redhead.

"Well, you coming?" Shego asked. Her voice was an unreadable neutral. Kim's eyes widened.

"I'm invited too?" She asked, finding the concept hard to swallow. They were archenemies the last time she checked. Hell, just two minutes ago the older woman hadn't hesitated before slamming Kim into a wall.

"Of course, I'm not through with you yet."

"I only did what I always do! It was that little brat that decided to tag along! Besides, I have to save this city, _remember_? From _you_?"

"First off, don't call my daughter a brat. Second, Drakken didn't want you or anyone else to know this, but this floating tin can? Yeah, it has about three hours left of fuel. You've already won, so c'mon."

"Aww, why does she have to come? I finally found you, so we don't need _her_ any more." Agni whined. Apparently, the girl thought Kim was a glorified chauffeur. Shego looked like she was about to chastise Agni, but visibly checked herself. It was almost as though she didn't think she had a right to discipline her. Instead she just said, "Well she _is_ coming. Deal."

"Damn!"

Kim didn't move. If Shego wanted her to come along she would need a far better reason than that. She told Shego as much.

"Just… do me this favor, 'kay? You already owe me for dragging Agni into this potentially _dangerous_ situation."

Kim opened her mouth to speak but realized that any excuse she could come up with would sound hollow. She had allowed a little girl to talk her into taking her along into a large floating doom-fortress filled with hair-trigger goons who probably would have felt the same about beating down on a little girl as on the teen hero. Eating dinner with the kid and her mom was the very least Kim could do.

Kim sighed, defeated, and moved up alongside Shego. "Fine, you win." She groaned when she saw Agni glare at the teen accusingly and if that wasn't enough, she stuck her tongue out at Kim. Some days it was simply not worth getting out of bed.

---One hour later---

Kim was sitting across from Shego and Agni in a small town restaurant they had spotted from the air. Shego had taken Drakken's hover-pod after leaving the sub-zero machine, and as far as Kim could tell, they seemed to be heading back in the direction of Middleton. The entire trip had felt unbelievably strained, with none of the three occupants willing to break the silence. Kim had little to say; she had gotten the distinct impression that asking Shego questions about this subject would be kind of like throwing a hornet's nest at a brick wall. Kim wasn't sure what Shego was thinking, but she knew it was about Agni; the pale woman kept sneaking pained glances at her daughter, as if she were simultaneously willing Agni out of existence and wishing like hell she could just hug the kid and never let go.

In contrast to the other two, Agni seemed completely untroubled and content as she sat holding tightly onto Shego's hand and listened to her MP3 player, which actually made it more awkward for the other occupants of the vehicle; the cheerful strains of Lily Allen's "Smile" were the exact wrong accompaniment to Kim and Shego's mood, no matter how distant and tinny they sounded. It had been a welcome change in scenery when they spotted the all-night breakfast place on the way. Kim hadn't realized it at the time but she hadn't eaten since breakfast. Agni showed up right before the teen would have had lunch.

Once they were seated, Agni wasted no time ordering herself a large pile of waffles smothered in just about everything on the table. Kim was about to ask if she could order something along those lines and take full advantage of the situation, but then Shego looked up sharply at her and said, "You know I'm not paying for you, right?" Considering that Agni's order was out of Kim's current budget she was forced to simply settle on a small plate of scrambled eggs. Shego for her part just sipped a cup of black coffee that Kim was sure was still too hot to drink without scalding her.

'_Darn it, I wish I had green fire powers too…'_

They ate (or in Shego's case drank) in silence for over ten _excruciating_ minutes. Kim was getting sick-to-death of the unbearable quiet that she had been wrapped in for over two hours. The cheerleader was used to a lively dinner table with her family talking about their day, or eating out with Ron and Rufus at Bueno Nacho.

That thought only served to further sour the cheerleader's already sour mood. Glancing to her left, she stared at the empty spot where her best friend, now ex-boyfriend, would normally be sitting. That, added to the guilt of going on the mission without him, made Kim feel pretty low. She wasn't sure how much more of this (frankly _insane_) situation she could take. If someone didn't start talking soon, she didn't know _what_ she would do, but she was reasonably sure it involved punching something.

'_You know, Kim, you_ are _the resident hero. If anyone's going to save anyone it's going to be you, even if it's just you saving yourself from going crazy.'_

Kim cleared her throat and got the grudging attention of the other two at the booth. She was about to ask Agni, "So how long has Shego been your mother," but she quickly stopped herself from saying anything quite _that_ certifiable. Instead she went for an easier approach.

"So, um… how long has it been since you've seen each other?" asked Kim. The teen shrank back when she noticed that Shego's gaze was currently trying to eat her soul. Agni, on the other hand, was busy doing some quick mental math. After a second the girl swallowed her current bite of delicious waffle and looked over at Shego.

"Eight years, right?"

Now Kim was _very_ glad she wasn't drinking anything, or else she would have spat it all over the green woman, likely signing _and_ notarizing her death certificate. _Eight years!_ Kim couldn't even fathom keeping out of contact with her family for that long. '_No wonder Shego seemed so out of sorts when she saw Agni. How could it have been eight whole years?'_

Shego leaned forward at the table and rubbed her temples to stave off what was clearly a mother of a headache. "Uh, heh, yeah, eight sounds... about right."

Agni grinned proudly. "I remembered because it was your eighteenth birthday, even if I was just four at the time. I've got a pretty good memory, right?"'

Such simple math was processed almost automatically in Kim's head. _Wait a second… If Shego is twenty-six and Agni is twelve…'_ Kim's eye nearly bugged out of her head, '_then Shego was only fourteen when Agni was born!'_

Shego silenced the words about to exit Kim's mouth with a dangerous look, before adding. "Yeah, pretty good alright… heh heh... _haaaahhh_."

If there was one thing Shego did not want right then, it was to bring up... _that night_ in front of her archrival. The older woman looked over at Agni and pulled a wet nap from her pocket, handing it to the small girl.

"Go to the bathroom and wipe that crap off your face, I'm sick of seeing it." Kim wasn't sure as to what Shego was referring to, but Agni did just that, leaving Kim alone with Shego for what seemed like the first time since the girl showed up on Kim's doorstep, which was roughly equivalent to a _geological age_ in Kim's opinion. Shego turned to Kim and her expression was stern.

"First you show up out of nowhere with my brothers and now you show up with Agni. What is _with_ you and this unhealthy obsession you have with my family?"

Kim wasn't about to take such an accusation without challenge, so she snapped back. "Y'know, maybe if you didn't estrange the freakin' _lot_ of them they wouldn't keep coming to _me_ to find you!"

"The situation between my brothers and me and the situation between Agni and me are so _totally_ not the same thing!" she hollered. "Besides, it's none of your business anyway, so butt out!"

"You _made_ it my business when you dragged me in here!"

The thief halted her next scathing comment and looked down at her intertwined hands introspectively. "Err, yeah, about that… I need-" She cut herself off as she saw Agni walk back to the table. Kim quickly did a double take when she saw that Agni's skin had apparently changed color. Instead of being a pasty off-white bordering on albinism, now her skin was a very familiar creamy light shade of green. For a moment Kim was at a loss, but she soon put two and two together.

'_Agni was wearing makeup! Wow, I wonder if she inherited any of Shego's other "traits..."'_

Agni casually took her seat across from Kim and began to resume eating without giving the redhead a second glance. In addition to arguing with Kim, Shego had used the time the kid was gone to quickly figure out a topic to talk about with her.

"Your birthday was about three months ago… Did you receive my package?"

'_I guess they at least keep in touch_,' Kim figured.

Agni looked up and nodded, happy that the woman had finally attempted to start a conversation. "Yeah, it was great! Thanks!" She reached up and pulled down the neck of her sweater, revealing a massive gold necklace encrusted with emeralds and ornately carved obsidian engravings. Kim recognized it immediately, considering that _that very necklace_ had disappeared from the British Royal Museum over six months ago. It was a priceless royal family heirloom from the 16th century! Kim had actually been asked to retrieve the necklace herself but there wasn't a trace of it to be found, and other more important missions took priority.

For her part Shego just smiled. "I'm glad you like it, a girl your age needs to start worrying about accessories."

Kim leaned forward and as quietly as she could so as not to alert the other diners, she hissed at Shego, "You gave your daughter _stolen_ goods?"

Shego just raised an eyebrow at Kim. "Are you _that_ shocked by the notion?" Quickly, before Kim had a chance to say anything else on the matter, she turned back to Agni. "So… How's school going?"

The young pale girl's expression hardened automatically, which made it seem as thought she were glaring at her waffles. "_Hate_ it, the teachers and students are complete idiots."

Shego snickered. "Yeah, you'll find that's the case with most people, kid. You get used to it."

Kim decided not to be left in the dust and chimed in. "So what school do you go to?"

Agni cast her a glare and in a barely audible mumble she said, "Go Academy for Gifted Women. Or _Hell_, if you wanna get technical." Shego clicked her tongue disapprovingly when she heard the name but said nothing.

Kim's eyes widened. She knew all about that school. It was this rich all-girls academy that was equipped to teach kindergarten through high school for the best and brightest women in the country! They had even scouted Kim when she was younger, but the redhead had turned them down so she could stay in Middleton with her family. She found it hard to believe that the girl in front of her could go to a facility where you were not only required to wear a uniform and sit up straight all the time, but dealing with some of the most challenging curriculum in the nation. The child in front of her was dressed like a hobo and slouched over her food with her elbows on the table. Definitely not your standard Go Academy material.

Kim realized she was staring when the young girl looked up angrily and said, "I told you before to stop staring at me. It's creeping me out!" Kim sighed and averted her gaze.

Shego leaned back in her seat. "While we're on the subject, you should know that I'm fully aware of your... _imperfect_ attendance record last semester. Care to shed some light on that?"

Agni's eyes widened, and she gulped nervously. Then she slowly looked up at Shego with an expression Kim recognized from the Tweebs whenever Anne was about to scold them. "Well, I mean… It's not like they were teaching me anything I didn't already, y'know, _know_, right? I had lotsa better things to do than sit in some classroom."

Shego scrutinized her offspring for a moment. "And exactly how _many_ days did you have, ahem, '_better_ things to do'? Refresh my memory."

Agni smiled nervously, "Um… not _that_ many… just… tnnrmmnn..."

"Care to repeat that?" Shego asked warningly.

Agni sighed and looked down at her plate, resigned. "…About twenty."

_Oh yeah_, Kim thought, _big family resemblance._

She smirked and Agni calmed down immediately at the sight, "Well then, that's twenty days that I paid for your school to drag its ass." The older woman shrugged. "I guess I'll just have to take back whatever that's worth from 'em."

Agni snickered and looked up at Shego. "Eh, don't worry about it. It's not like I'm gonna _go_ there anymore." This, needless to say, caught both women's immediate attention. It caught Shego's attention so well, in fact, that she nearly spilled her coffee.

'_What does she mean by that?'_ Kim thought. Apparently Shego had the same idea and vocalized the question.

Agni gulped down another bite of chewed waffle and looked her mother in the eye. "What I mean is that I'm gonna live with you from now on, so it doesn't matter." She paused, then added impishly, " But we can still raid the place if you wanna." Kim could practically feel all of Shego's muscles stiffen up at hearing the young girl's naive statement. It apparently didn't escape Agni's notice either and the thief's daughter frowned.

"That's... that's okay, right? I mean… there's _no way_ I'm _ever_ going back to that crappy city or that even crappier school. I want to stay with you, Mom. I mean, _come on_." There was an openly pleading look in her eyes that Shego was having trouble dealing with.

"Wuh-we'll talk about it when we get back to my apartment, 'kay?" Shego managed to say in a somewhat distant tone of voice. Regardless the words seemed to pacify the younger girl and she finished the final bite of her meal. Shego and Kim, having ordered much smaller portions than the girl, had finished a good deal earlier and were simply waiting for Agni to catch up. All three then stood up to leave the restaurant since Shego had already paid upfront, but the pale-green woman placed a hand on Agni's shoulder, halting her.

"Whoa there, squirt. Wait here for a minute. I gotta go have a word with Kim alone." Her voice was stern and while that normally would have gotten an immediate response from Agni, this time she decided to contest her instructions.

"Why? Why is _she_ even still here? We should just drop her off now and go back to your place! I mean..." Shego would have none of that, however; she narrowed her eyes at the girl, causing Agni to wince and take a step back.

"Just... be a good girl for me, got it?"

Agni nodded and grudgingly crossed her arms. "Whatever…" The young girl didn't understand why her mother had insisted that Kim come along with them. As far as she knew, they hated each other, although anyone who had looked in on their last meal would have probably thought otherwise. She secretly hoped that her mother was calling the redhead outside so she could beat her up like usual and leave her here in the middle of nowhere. As far as she was concerned, any enemy of Shego's was an enemy of hers. _Plus it'd be funny._

What Agni envisioned couldn't have been further from the truth.

Shego led Kim outside the restaurant. The light from the surrounding street lamps bathed the parking lot in an eerie orange glow, which contrasted weirdly with Shego's skin, making her appear to be covered in flesh-toned paint. Kim had a feeling that she was finally going to be told why she had been brought along by her archrival in the first place. They weren't exactly friends after all. Once they were out front, Shego leaned against the establishment's wall and crossed her arms, while Kim stood in front of her waiting.

"Okay, Shego, spill."

The green woman sighed and seemed to be internally debating how to word what she wanted to say. After a moment, she found her voice.

"Okay, listen. I know I am not even _orbiting_ the position I need to be in to ask _anything_ from you, _especially_ after the Lil' Diablo mess…" Kim nodded, agreeing with the sentiment. That hadn't been a good night for either of the two women. "But," she added, "I really, really, _really_ need your help with this. Like, more then anything I could _ever_ ask of you. I will get down on my knees and I will beg like a Goddamn dog right there in the dirt if that is what it takes to freaking convince you, okay?"

Now Kim was on her guard. The idea of Shego begging was equivalent to the idea of going on a whitewater rafting trip with Dracula and Bigfoot; it simply wasn't possible. Of course, just four hours ago, Shego having a daughter was even _more_ impossible; so this was really just par for the course. She realized Shego was waiting for a response, so she spoke up.

"Go on, I'm listening."

Shego took a deep breath to steel herself and looked at Kim pleadingly. "Please don't tell _anyone_ about Agni." Kim took a step back.

"What? Why's that?"

The older woman shook her head. "Listen and listen good. I have devoted a sizable amount of my time and capital to making sure that there is as _little_ connecting her to me as there possibly can be."

Kim thought back to the stolen necklace, but she decided against mentioning it.

"When I tell you nobody outside of my family knows that Agni is my daughter, I mean _nobody_. Even her birth certificate was altered. As far as the rest of the world knows, _you_ could be her mother." She looked up at Kim. "And now you know this, and that puts me in a very delicate position, because she deserves as much of a chance as any of those other stuck-up little bitches at her school, and she won't have that if..." Shego hung her head in shame for a moment, then looked back at Kim. "Anyway, you don't have any reason to do me any favors or keep any secrets for me, so-"

"I won't tell anyone." Kim stated, cutting the woman off. Shego looked up at her in surprise.

"You won't? _Why_? You've got absolutely no reason to help me." Shego said narrowing her eyes and clearly not buying it. She had expected that she might have to bribe or bargain with the young Possible but it seemed like the girl was offering to help her out with no strings attached.

Kim snorted. "Because I'm a hero, dummy. And also because I kind of agree with you; everyone deserves a chance to succeed, even a little... a _girl_ like Agni. And finally because it's none of my business anyway. Your family is just that: yours. I have nothing to do with it."

Kim thought she saw Shego blush. "Uh… I... Er... Thanks."

Kim could tell from the strain in Shego's voice that it was just as difficult for the thief to express gratitude as it was for her daughter to apologize. The redhead found that to be strangely endearing. One thing was nagging at her, however.

"You're not going to let her live with you, are you?" Considering Shego's stance on people knowing about Agni, she doubted it. Kim couldn't see Shego being a very stable adult to live with either. After all, the green woman _openly enjoyed_ her status as an international fugitive. In response Shego looked up at Kim sharply.

"Of course I'm not! Jesus, I'm not an idiot. I'll let her stay the night and then first thing tomorrow I'm driving her back to her grandparents' place." She suppressed a shudder at the thought. "Shit, I can't _believe_ you even _asked_ that. Who the hell do you think I am?"

Kim held up both hands defensively. "Whoa, touchy much? I just needed to make sure, okay? _So_ not the drama!" Shego sighed and rubbed her temples for the second time that night.

"Okay, get in the pod. I'll go get Agni and then drop you off at your house."

Kim nodded and went to do as she was asked. She hoped that her parents weren't going to be too mad about her coming home so late, since she was mentally too exhausted to deal with that. Above all else, she was reprocessing everything that Shego had told her. The hero was honestly having trouble understanding why the older woman was so adamant about keeping the young girl at arm's length. She understood Shego's reasoning, but the facts still didn't add up. The thief never had trouble balancing her fugitive status and her social life before, so that meant that there had to be some other factor involved. Kim didn't want to inquire; as she had said earlier, it wasn't her business. She also knew that she had gotten all she was going to get out of Shego for the night, but the mystery irked her nonetheless.

The familiar three-tone ring of her Kimmunicator cut off her thoughts. Quickly pulling the device from her pocket, Kim fully expected to see Wade's name across the ID bar, but instead, much to her chagrin, it was Ron.

'_He's probably going to ask why I didn't invite him along on this mission. What'll I tell him when_ I _don't even really know the answer?'_ She thought fast, '_Well, Shego and Agni are about to step out of the diner; I don't really have time to answer right now anyway..._ She watched sadly as the tone finally cut off. _I'll just… I'll call him back when I get home'_, she reasoned, as her two companions made their way out to the parking lot.

Quietly, Kim pocketed her Kimmunicator.

---One hour later, outside the Possible residence---

The ride home had been as silent as it was before the pit stop; however, this time Agni turned on the radio and over the news the three heard how the giant ice dome over Las Vegas was currently evaporating away and that the fugitive, one Dr. Drew Lipsky, was currently in military custody. Agni laughed out loud at that, but Kim and Shego remained silent as they made their way towards the Possible residence. Every now and then Kim got the feeling that Agni was glaring at her from the backseat, but she learned to ignore it after awhile.

When they finally arrived at Kim's suburban home, the redhead hopped out of the hover-pod with light grace and before she could turn to say "goodbye" or "thanks for the ride" (she was, after all, a very polite young woman even in the presence of enemies), Shego turned the pod around and sped off, presumably to her mysterious apartment. As the pod disappeared into the distance, Kim could have sworn that she saw Agni sticking her tongue out at her again. The redhead merely sighed and made her way inside with every intention of ignoring the gesture. She honestly hoped that by morning she would forget all events that had occurred that day so that she could move on with her relatively normal life.

She had no idea how impossible that would turn out to be. Even for a Possible.

Chapter 2: End

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**Be sure to remember, the awesomness of this chapter is owed almost entirely to the hard work of my beta, Ffordesoon. Work made even harder by what a pain in the ass I can be.**


	3. Audacity and Hope

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now. _

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 3: Audacity and Hope**

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Kim awoke uncharacteristically late the next morning. Usually she rose with the sun, filled with seemingly boundless energy that she would probably end up spending in its entirety throughout her day. This _particular_ morning, however, she felt none of that. No, she felt, to put it bluntly, like crap. Her mouth tasted like old sticky shoe polish, she had a throbbing headache, and to top it off, her right arm had fallen asleep some time ago, and she was paying for that now; the wayward limb felt like thousands of pins and needles were digging into it. Using her left hand, Kim wiped the sleep from her eyes and let out a tired groan. Curious to see how long she'd slept in, the redhead craned her neck around to look at her alarm clock. She was dejected to find that it was close to twelve-thirty in the afternoon.

She groaned and buried her face into her pillow._ '…It's a wonder Mom didn't check up on me… Maybe I'm coming down with something.'_

Whenever the teen found herself in bed past seven she felt slothful and lazy, and she always made a dedicated effort to be up early as a result. Kim raised her head out of her pillow and stared blankly at the far wall, groggily trying to summon up the needed energy to get up and get moving. '_Let's see now… It's Sunday, right? What did I have to do today again? Oh yeah, I'm supposed to meet Ron later at the- Oh shit! I forgot to call Ron back! ARGH! Dammit, I'd better call him right after I take a shower… wow, I feel like I was run over by a bus on top of everything… what did I_ do _last night?'_

Thinking back on the night before, the redhead tried to remember why she felt so out of sorts. Almost immediately the stream of events that had so heavily taxed her flooded her mind, unwanted and unbidden. Remembering Agni's arrival and all the chaos that came after knocked any remaining trace of sleep right the hell out of her system. Kim immediately sat up, or at least tried to. She found to her dismay that her right arm was apparently wedged under something very warm and heavy.

Kim looked down and saw a noticeable lump under the blanket laying on top of the prone limb. She flung the blanket away, and what remained surprised her. The curled-up figure of a small dark-haired girl was lying across Kim's arm. After the initial shock wore off, Kim recognized the sleeping girl as Agni.

Shego's daughter was lying in the fetal position breathing slowly and evenly, deep in slumber despite the loss of the blanket. The girl had shed her sweater and shoes, which were lying in a pile next to Kim's bed, and now only wore a black tank top, her shorts, and torn black stockings.

The girl's normally rude and abrasive attitude was not at all present when asleep; indeed, she seemed serene and almost peaceful. If not for the pale green skin, she could have been any normal girl. That image was extinguished when Kim freaked out at the sight and pulled her arm out from under the young girl, waking her with the sudden jarring motion.

"Agni, what in the _hell_ are you doing on my _bed_?" Kim shouted, eliciting a tired groan from the preteen. Agni rubbed her eyes and opened her left eye half way using it to scowl darkly at the redhead with whom she currently shared the bed.

"I _was_ sleeping. Then this _rude bitch_ with _red hair_ shook me like an _idiot nanny_, and here we are."

_Rude!?_ I'm _the rude one? She snuck into my bed and she doesn't even live here!_ Kim thought, amazed at the girl's nerve. The cheerleader took a deep breath to calm herself before looking down at Agni, who had finally sat up on the mattress and was rubbing her eyes.

"Seriously Agni, what are you doing here?" asked Kim, in no mood to play games.

The girl frowned and looked away. Kim recognized the look from yesterday. Apparently that look meant that she was busy coming up with whatever answer was in her best interest. After a moment's hesitation, Agni looked up at the cheerleader.

"Hiding." she said finally.

Kim blinked in surprise. In the back of her mind she complained that there were simply too many shocks happening _that early_ in the freaking morning, conveniently forgetting that it was approaching mid-afternoon. _Most of my enemies at least have the good graces to shock me_ after _three in the afternoon._ Half-expecting to be ignored, Kim asked what was most on her mind: "Hiding from who?"

Agni sighed and slipped off the bed and began to slowly pull on her sweater and shoes. Kim secretly wondered if she had been wearing that filthy outfit the entire trip, but decided there were more pressing matters to investigate.

Agni turned to look at Kim and the older girl recognized the forced neutrality of her expression as one that had no place on a girl her age.

"My mom."

---Seven Hours Ago: Shego's Apartment---

When Agni first arrived at Shego's home, she had been as excited as a kid at Disneyland (not _her_, of course, but your average child) and ran all over the apartment to get a rare feel for her mother's life. Whenever the two would exchange letters, Shego made it a point to never go very deep into her personal life. It was her way of keeping the girl from finding out where she was so that she couldn't run away to her like she had. Apparently Shego had greatly underestimated her daughter's tenacity.

Until now Agni didn't know where Shego lived or even what she lived _in_. It could have been a house or an apartment or a _cave_. Hell, for all the girl knew, Shego lived in an igloo deep in the Alaskan tundra. This did _not_ mean, however, that her mother never told her _any_ stories about her glamorous life as an international criminal. Agni was always riveted by the older woman's thorough accounts of her past heists, the exotic places she'd visited, and the dangerous people she had to deal with on a regular basis. Whenever a story involving her mother showed up on the news or Internet, Agni always got excited since it gave real substance to the larger-than-life stories and made Shego feel closer to home. As far as the girl was concerned, her mother wasn't a mere _celebrity_; she was James Bond, Catwoman, and Sydney Bristow all rolled into one, but with a better fashion sense than any of them. Yes, it was fantastic... well, except for the fact that she could _never_ proudly state that she was the world-famous superthief Shego's daughter, as much as she would absolutely _love_ to. The look on that snotty bitch Cassandra's face _alone_ would've been worth all the hassle.

Agni had been four when Shego left, and that was also when her family began to insist that she act like she didn't know the pale thief around others. Agni wanted to ignore those instructions and absolutely would have, but when Shego was the one who asked, it was different. She made it seem so much more... _important_.

When finishing her exploration of the older woman's living space Agni found herself surprised and somewhat dejected by two things.

First, whenever she thought about what Shego's home might look like, she'd always imagined that it was decorated wall-to-wall with souvenirs of the green thief's past exploits, sort of like walking into a small crime museum. Batman had a museum in the Batcave, so why _wouldn't_ the great and powerful Shego have something like that? What she found instead was a surprisingly Spartan environment. The walls were virtually bare and the furniture was simple, focusing on practicality rather than on aesthetics. Aside from the kitchen, which was fully stocked with appliances, and the living room, which had an admittedly impressive and up-to-date entertainment system, there was an almost sterile, lifeless quality to the apartment. Anyone could have lived there with how impersonal it appeared.

The pale girl quickly decided that it made perfect sense, considering that her mother was probably all over the world most of the time and simply wasn't home enough to properly break in the place. _I guess it's cool to not bother with too much excessive junk._ Agni thought as she surveyed the room she was in. _That kinda stuff would just get in the way anyways…_

The second problem was far more substantial and troubling to Agni. The issue, of course, was that it was just a one-bedroom apartment, and a rather small one on top of that. There was _just_ enough room for Shego to live comfortably _by herself_, and that meant there was exactly _zero_ room for Agni. Regardless of this all-too-apparent fact, the young girl did her best to remain optimistic. It was an alien thing for the miniature cynic to attempt, but she figured that when it came to her mother it was well worth the effort.

'_I don't take up much space; I could live on the couch…'_

Agni looked up to see what her mom had been doing the whole time and, after some quick searching, found her in the kitchen downing a glass of water. There was an open bottle of aspirin in front of her on the kitchen counter. When Shego noticed Agni in the room with her the thief stopped what she was doing and put away the glass and the aspirin, turning her attention to her daughter. Her mother's troubled expression chilled the younger girl on the inside. If Shego told her she couldn't stay, the young green girl wasn't sure what she'd do.

Shego took a deep, calming breath and then looked Agni in the eye. Her expression was that of stiff neutrality.

"Agni," she sighed and shook her head, "listen, why are you here?" Her voice was level but with the faintest hint of disapproval that to the young girl's ears was as loud as a warning klaxon.

"I-I told you why, mom. I-" Shego cut her off with a quick hand gesture.

"I know what you said, but... you're a smart girl, kiddo. You _know_ what I do, and you _know_ that I left you with your grandparents for a good reason. And _I_ know that you wouldn't just forget all of that on a whim." She crossed her arms and leaned against the countertop, regarding Agni silently while waiting for her reply.

Agni bit her lip to try to keep from frowning, but failed. She hadn't come on a whim, but out of desperation. Life at home had simply become unbearable; her monthly correspondence with her mother had long ago become the only thing she could look forward to. For all her tough talk, Agni was still very much a child, with a child's yearnings; when her life had become too much for her to handle, the only thing she knew to do was run back to her mother. Unfortunately, this situation wasn't some ouchie her mother could kiss out of existence, but was merely _how things had to be_. As this reality slowly dawned on her, she began to fight it tooth and nail.

"I just… things are just re-really _hard_, y'know…" Agni managed as her voice began to choke up. With Shego across the kitchen rather then across the globe, keeping up her emotional walls was swiftly proving impossible. Still, if she let even a _single_ tear escape in front of the woman she idolized, Agni would _never_ forgive herself.

'_Don't you_ dare _cry, DAMMIT! Not in front of_ her_!'_

Shego, for her part, kept still and tried her best to remain steady on the matter. Internally, however, she could feel her heart being ripped out of her chest and sliced to bits as she watched her daughter try to hide the pain tearing her up inside. Shego knew from her own experiences that their lives did not allow for much comfort. They had both grown up in the same unbearable household, and they had both felt the unique and terrible sting of simultaneously _being_ more than human and _feeling_ less than human.

In Shego's opinion, her daughter had had it much worse than she did. Shego had been changed when she was twelve, the age Agni was right now. Whereas the young girl was born that way, and she'd had to live with it since Day One while doing her best to try and hide it from others.

Had it been completely up to Shego, she would never have left in the first place. Agni wouldn't need to wear that makeup, and Shego wouldn't have to live like she didn't know her own child. In the end, though, it wasn't exactly the older woman's choice. Yes, the final decision _was_ hers to make, but in her opinion that choice was a delusion at best. She simply wasn't equipped to raise the girl; not mentally, not emotionally, not in any way that counted. She had already proven that.

'_God, seeing her like this... NO! I just can't be part of her life, not the way she wants, not the way she deserves. I_ can't_! I've made too damn many mistakes as it is, and I'd just... I'd repeat them again and again...'_ There were certain events in Shego's life that she simply refused to revisit even when by herself. Her reason for separating from Agni was one of them, and would forever remain between her mother, herself, and one more person who no longer had the capacity to talk about it. But that was in the past and it was going to stay there. All that mattered right then was for Shego to attend to the small girl trying to be so strong in front of her.

Shego walked up to Agni and kneeled on the floor so they were both eye level before pulling the small girl into a hug that she gratefully reciprocated, burying her face into the thief's neck. For almost ten minutes the two simply basked in the closeness that past circumstances had denied them. Eventually it was Shego who broke the silence.

"You... you should go to bed now, kiddo. We'll talk more about this in the morning, 'kay? I'll let you use my bed and I'll sleep on the couch."

Agni nodded; she was too tired to protest, but not yet willing to let go of Shego. But then she was grudgingly forced to pull back her head to allow a yawn to escape. She really _was_ exhausted. During her entire trip she usually spent the night hiding in empty train cars or the backseat of parked automobiles, always making sure to wake up and vacate before first light. A quiet and uninterrupted sleep was all she could think of right now. Shego stood up and took the young girl's hand, leading her to the bedroom. The older woman was amused to see the young girl fall into deep unconsciousness before her head even hit the pillow.

---Four Hours Ago: Shego's Apartment---

Shego had decided earlier that night to make a phone call while Agni was asleep, but she had apparently forgotten something about the little green-skinned preteen when she put her to bed. As a benefit from their unusual physiologies, neither she nor Shego had ever needed more than four or five hours of sleep a night. Her grandmother once told her that that fact had made taking care of her while she was a baby absolutely unbearable, and that, since the two adhered to the same unique circadian rhythm, only Shego had been able to do it with any sort of efficacy.

Agni woke with a start, to the sound of raised voices. For a moment, Agni thought she had imagined the loud voice she heard, like the temporary holdover from some nightmare. However, that theory evaporated when she heard the deafening shouts again. As far as she could tell, her mother was on the phone with someone who made her very, very angry.

"...And you've got _a lot_ of nerve saying that to _me_, considering _you're_ the one she ran away from!" Shego shouted into the receiver. It didn't take a genius to figure out who Shego was shouting at. As far as Agni could remember, Shego and her grandmother always got into the worst arguments, and she was usually the subject of those arguments.

'_I'm not surprised she called here. At least Gram knows her number.'_ Agni thought. The girl was incorrect; in actuality, Shego had made the call, albeit very reluctantly. Not even her mother knew her apartment phone number.

"I didn't _take_ her, I've said that _three times_ already! Maybe you could hear me if you're ears weren't already clogged by your _massive ego_!" Now fully awake, Agni stealthily snuck from the bedroom and peeked around the corner. The young girl saw Shego looking down at the phone receiver in her hands and debating the merits of smashing it to bits. After a moment she put the device back to her ear.

'_Yeah, that's Gram alright. Only she could ever get to Mom like that.'_

"Y'know, maybe this wouldn't happen if I could _visit_ her every now and th-" There was an abrupt pause during which Shego's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You really are an idiot if you think for _one second_ that I'm going to stop _writing_ to her."

Agni winced and took a step forward to try to hear some of her grandmother's side of the conversation. It was no secret that her Gram didn't like that they kept in regular contact. Not that _that_ had ever stopped her…

"Yeah… yeah, look, I told you already that I'm taking her back first thing in the morning… I don't care what... _Oh come on_!" There was a pause, and the expression on Shego's face said she didn't like what she was hearing. "No, _you_ listen! The reason you take care of her, the _ONLY_ reason, is because I _let_ you take care of her. When I say that I could just as easily _not_ let you, I hope you understand what I mean." There was another long pause.

"Ooooh, child services. And that means shit to me _why_? You're the one that keeps rubbing my job in my face, so you should know that I could give a flying _fuck_ about laws. What? Why would you--"

Shego sighed and leaned back against the wall, dangling the phone at her side since her right hand had begun to glow involuntarily. She felt tired and drained. She brought the receiver back to her mouth. "Yeah… Like I said; tomorrow morning." She hung up the phone without another word and leaned against the wall with her eyes shut tight.

_Well, that's it._ Agni thought and her chest tensed up. _I guess she's made up her mind._ She shook her head and quickly darted off back to her room. _Well_ I _have too!_

The young girl quickly pulled on her shoes and sweater. Going to Shego's had been an exercise in desperation. However, that did not mean that Agni had exhausted all of her options. There was one more thing she could do, and it was, in fact, the easiest option at her disposal, since it didn't rely on anyone else. She quietly slid the bedroom window open and stealthily hopped down to the street below.

'_I'll run away and live on my own. It's either that or Mom, and I'm obviously not doing_ her _any good.'_ In Agni's mind, going back to Go City never even entered the equation.

---Kim's Room: Now---

"What? Why did you run from Shego?" Kim's voice cut through Agni's inner reverie and the young girl looked up sharply, frowning. The girl shrugged and started walking towards the window.

"She an' me had different ideas, is all," the preteen answered, glaring at Kim.

Kim didn't have to be a rocket scientist's daughter to immediately grasp the deeper meaning of the girl's words. Shego had broken the news of Agni's imminent return to Go City to her daughter, either on purpose or accidentally, and Agni hadn't taken it well. That didn't, however, explain why the girl had chosen _Kim's room_ as her hiding place. Agni had displayed nothing but contempt for her mother's nemesis since the two had met, and that didn't appear to have changed, so why would she seek refuge with said nemesis?

"Even if that's the case, why were _you_ sleeping in _my_ bed? You know, the one where _I_ sleep? Where _I_ do _me_ things that involve _me_ and not _you_? The one that's not _yours_? Any of this ringing a freakin' bell?" Kim almost shouted, remembering the shock brought on by the scene. Agni leaned against the window and gave the older girl a somewhat apologetic look. The look was only _somewhat_ apologetic because it was obvious that the green girl was trying to hide the expression under a front of indifference.

"Well, my mom's a pretty great tracker, really. …But I bet you knew that already."

Kim hadn't heard anything to that effect, but it made a good deal of sense, given Shego's profession. Tracking was one of Kim's skills as well, so the idea that Shego would be equally adept at it was unsurprising and, in light of the previous night's stunning revelations, almost boring.

"I needed to go somewhere she wouldn't think to look, and this place was all I could think of." Agni said. This wasn't _entirely_ true; she doubted that Shego would ever think to look for her in Go City. But, of course, hiding _there_ defeated the purpose of running away in the first place.

The raven-haired girl rubbed the back of her head while breaking eye contact. "I was pretty beat when I got here, and the bed was... kinda... _right there_, so…" she trailed off sheepishly.

Kim frowned and crossed her arms in disapproval, "So you just... _crawled_ right in? You can't just sneak into bed with a person and think they'll be okay with it!"

Agni suddenly shot Kim a surprisingly defiant look and matched Kim's pose. "Well I didn't think you minded at the time, since the minute I got under the covers you hugged the damn breath outta me and called me 'Pandaroo!'" Agni shuddered. Her mom's arch foe was into _Cuddle Buddies_. It was enough to make her skin crawl.

Kim's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates before she recovered enough to shout, "I did _not_!" She frantically scrutinized the bed to see if her precious stuffed animal was at all visible. She saw part of it poking out from under the mattress frame. She hoped Agni didn't see it; the girl would probably tell Shego, and that would lead inexorably to permanent humiliation. The cheerleader quickly averted her gaze from the incriminating plushy and turned her attention back to the rude and audacious twelve-year-old.

While Kim was focused on Pandaroo, Agni had taken the opportunity to begin opening Kim's window for a fast and quiet escape. The feeling of Kim's hand firmly grasping her shoulder threw the proverbial monkey wrench into that plan.

"Where do you think _you're_ going?"

Agni whipped around and knocked the girl's hand off her shoulder. "Out. This was just a pit stop anyway." She honestly had no idea where she was headed, but that didn't matter. Her bank account was full and would afford her all the money she needed to get by. She was also relatively confident that she could take care of herself even without money, but the more she thought about it, the more that confidence began to slip away.

Kim, for her part, wasn't sure why Agni was so hellbent on _not_ returning to Go City, but asking would be pointless. She could practically hear the girl snap back at her: "Mind your own damn business!" One thing the redhead was sure of, however, was that she couldn't let the girl just disappear. Sure, the kid seemed pretty resourceful for her age, but she was still a kid. Agni hadn't even hit puberty and she was _already_ miffed enough at her guardians to flee across state lines. If Kim didn't catch her now, by the time Agni was Kim's age, the girl would probably be plotting armed insurrections against the government or something.

"I can't let you leave, you know." Kim said resolutely.

Agni just smirked. "Then stop me."

And almost faster then Kim could blink, the girl leapt out the window.

'_That's how it's gonna be, huh? Fair enough...'_

Agni tucked and landed in a roll, controlling the spin so that she ended up on her feet with no wasted motion; then she was off like a rocket, ducking and swerving behind houses and trees. An onlooker would have thought that Agni had run that route her entire life rather then just improvised it on the fly.

'_Mom gives that ditz way too much credit_,' thought the twelve-year-old, snickering. However, her expression soon twisted into a grimace.

Thinking about Shego suddenly ruined Agni's good mood and made her stomach turn. She would have liked nothing more then to run back to her mother, but she wasn't about to forget that Shego couldn't keep her. It was a pretty crummy trick for fate to play: the person who kept her didn't like her, and the person who liked her couldn't keep her. Lost within herself, she didn't notice the obstruction in the road. She crashed hard into something soft and fell into a sitting position.

Agni rubbed her sore nose and looked up at the thing in her way. She was greeted by the smug grin of her mom's archenemy. Kim had her hands on her hips and looked down at the girl like a cat cornering a mouse.

"You're good. I'm better." said Kim.

Agni couldn't believe that the teen (who, as far as she was concerned, didn't even belong in the same _room_ as her mother) had managed to both track and outrun her so effortlessly. Undeterred, the girl launched herself backwards and ran the opposite way, only to be met with... _Kim_. Luckily Agni was more alert this time, so she stopped before she could bump into Kim.

"Going somewhere, Spider-Girl?" the cheerleader asked coyly.

Agni was growing frustrated; she decided that if the girl wasn't going to let her leave in peace, then she just wouldn't leave in peace. Agni launched a jump-kick at Kim's head, but Kim simply took a step back. The redhead's arm shot forward and grabbed the offending limb around the ankle. Agni twisted her weight around and kicked at Kim with her free leg, but Kim calmly raised her arm and blocked the blow. Kim casually blocked another kick with her forearm and, snagging the opportunity, twisted her arm around and caught the girl by her other ankle. This ultimately resulted in Kim calmly holding Agni upside-down while Agni looked up at her in utter fury.

"Put me _down_, you... _loser_!" shouted the girl, fire in her emerald eyes.

'_I wonder what this girl was like for her babysitters?'_ Kim thought, amused by Agni's tenacity. She was about to ask Agni if she had given up when she saw that the girl was just looking up at her and had stopped struggling. The redhead reflexively loosened her grip, forgetting for a moment exactly whose child she was dealing with. Both of the girl's hands flared up suddenly with frightful swirling green light, and she swiped forwards with her tiny claws forcing Kim to drop her.

'_I guess that answers my question,'_ the heroine thought, frowning.

Kim casually sidestepped the slashing torches at the ends of the young girl's arms with practiced ease. She wasn't even working up a sweat; her hands were even behind her back as she continued to dodge the preteen's furious strikes. "You know I could do this all day, don't you?" Kim said, smirking.

'_Okay, I admit it_,' Agni thought bitterly, '_she_ is _pretty good. But I still think my Mom can kick the crap out of her.'_

But Agni was obviously tiring herself out with all that relentless slashing. After about ten minutes Kim saw a perfect opening and darted forward, leaping behind the girl and snatching her by her forearms in a tight hold. At first Agni struggled against Kim's grip like an animal caught in a bear trap, but after awhile she gave up and laid still, tired and resigned to her defeat at the hands of the older and far more experienced opponent.

"Have you calmed down?" Kim asked waiting for the moment she could let go of the girl without fear of Agni running off again.

"…Yeah." Agni said, sounding as beat as she felt.

"Good."

Kim let go and took a step back, ready to spring forward if the girl ran off again. Much to her relief, Agni didn't... but she also didn't turn around to face her. It was odd; it was as if Kim had broken the girl's spirit. She actually hadn't; Agni was simply dreading hearing that she would be sent back home. The green-eyed girl knew that if if she tried to run off again she would probably be caught the same way.

Kim reached down and took the girl by the hand, and she was surprised when she wasn't shrugged off. Agni remained silent as they made their way back to Kim's home. Kim kept stealing glances at Agni during the walk.

'_I know she doesn't wanna go back, but she_ has _to. I mean, her grandparents are probably totally worried about her... right?'_ Kim's inherent need to help kept tugging at her from within; she simply couldn't let things just fizzle out like this. The way Agni was acting made Kim feel like she was leading the girl to her execution. As far as the redhead was concerned, there was no palatable solution to this problem, just a variety of unacceptable ones.

_Maybe_, she thought, '_If I could just figure out why she doesn't want to go back, I could help her fix it…'_ She knew she was being optimistic, but it was her way. When they were in front of Kim's home, Kim kneeled in front of the girl and looked her in the eye.

"You _really_ don't want to go home, do you?"

Agni just shook her head, not bothering to make eye contact.

Kim sighed. "Maybe… maybe I can help. I _am_ sorta known to do that, after all." The young girl looked up at her and cocked her eyebrow.

"You can stay here for today and get cleaned up first. Then, if you'll _let_ me, we can try and figure something out. Sound okay?" Kim saw Agni look away, but she didn't seem to be dismissing the assistance outright. After a while, she nodded.

"Um... 'kay."

Agni was just trying to buy herself some more time anyway. If this idiotic do-gooder thought she could fix this problem, then there was no reason to try and stop her. As far as Agni was concerned, she needed all the help she could get. Kim smiled at the small progress made, and she felt for the first time that day that things were starting to settle down.

She should have known better by now.

Chapter 3: End

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**Remember, reviews are always both appreciated and encouraged!**


	4. School's Out Forever

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 4: School's Out Forever**

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'_I can't believe that I was caught so easily by that redheaded ditz!' _Agni fumed, her mood even hotter then the steaming water that poured down over her. When they'd returned to the Possible house, Kim had insisted that Agni take a shower while she washed the girl's grubby clothes. Agni had gratefully accepted the offer; at least, she was grateful on the inside. On the outside she just sneered and headed off to the bathroom, brushing past Kim's startled brothers.

'_She said she would try to help me, but somehow… she seems ill equipped to the task. There is only one thing I want, to be away from that stupid school and that fucked up family!' _Ideally, that would have meant living with her mother, but to Agni, anywhere was vastly preferable to, Go City at the very least.

The green girl leaned back and sighed as she scoured her self clean with the roughest sponge she could find. Agni always made sure to turn the shower nozzle on its highest setting, the hotter it was, the more enjoyable she found it. To anyone else the water would have been scalding, dangerously so, but thanks to that comet her mother was hit by, Agni had a heat coursing throughout her veins that made anything a showerhead could spit out laughable in comparison. In fact, she did her best thinking while under the heat.

'_Kim Possible, the teenage cheerleader hero, and the one my mom's been butting heads with for at least three years now… I _hate_ her! Why does she have to act so damn confident? What the hell does she know anyway, about my problems, about my mom, or about _anything_? She's just arrogant because she's been lucky so far and she has a nice home and a nice family. She goes to a public school for Cripes sakes! Does she have _any_ idea what I'd give to get out of that hellhole!?'_

A thin aura of green energy had begun to form around the girl's hands as she ruminated on the matter but she quickly noticed and suppressed the light before anything regrettable happened. Agni chewed her lip before she lost her self-control and blew up all over the shower; the term "fiery temper" had totally different meanings when one could actually accompany their temper _with_ fire. She took several deep breaths and managed to calm herself down. She certainly didn't want to explain to Kim's parents why their shower had been reduced to charred slag; that would have been somewhat embarrassing to say the least and she would probably have had to apologize. _'God forbid I have to say anything nice to any of them!'_

'_Miss All American prim pretty little world saver. All smiles, lottsa friends I bet... Let's see her keep up that smile crammed in one of those stuffy uniforms all day! Let's see where all that lame-ass cheer goes when she's the pariah, and not the saint! I'd love to see her in my shoes!'_ She leaned back, feeling the wet tiles along her shoulder blades. Her frustration was almost asphyxiating. _'I'll bet… I'll bet they even serve chocolate milk at her cafeteria!'_

Anytime the thief's daughter thought about her school it put her in a foul temper. Agni knew that had it not been for her mother's sizable donations, she could bet that that elitist spoiled-brat institution would have turned her away at the gate. The teachers and the students all seemed to know from Day One that she didn't belong with them and they made it clear from then on that she wasn't welcome among them. The attitudes of the faculty and students became even more hostile when they realized that the girl in their care was simply not the type to sit back and take such abuse, that there were gross repercussions. Worse still, every time she did lash out in her own defense the teachers would cause her no end of grief by getting her home life involved as well.

Being pinched between her family and her school was, as far as the young girl was concerned, the deepest circle of hell. People who didn't seem to even try to understand what she was dealing with left her with no escape and forced their values down upon her.

'_Just like before the summer began…'_ She hissed and shook her head.

---Go Academy for Gifted Women: Two and a half Months Ago---

Agni slammed her locker shut with a barely suppressed screech. She then whipped around and rolled her burning emerald eyes across the crowd filling the hallway. Most students backed away in well-established fear, but some were stupid or arrogant and returned the expression in kind or as close as they could manage; matching one of Agni's glares was usually a feat in itself. She began to rifle through her backpack and her pockets desperately in search of something, but still coming up empty.

'_Where is it? Where the hell could it be!? I checked three friggin times to see that I had it in my locker after three different periods and it was always there, so _where_ is it _now!_?'_ Her eyes darted from face to face as different girls and faculty passed her by.

The "it" in question was a very hefty and very important finals assignment. On its own the project would be the deciding factor of Agni's semester grade, and it was in her weakest subject by far, English Composition. On top of that, the teacher in that class, Mrs. Turler, had had it in for the thief's daughter from the moment she'd laid eyes on her months ago. It showed as an obvious bias in her grading. If Agni turned in B-level work she was sure to get a low C at best for her troubles and that was on a good day. These factors, on top of Agni's poor grasp on the subject in general, had caused her grades in that class to plummet. Mrs. Turler would have been more bearable if she was one of a kind, but it seemed that with the exception of maybe two other faculty members (one being the janitor) Agni was never looked on favorably.

The reason was simple enough, Agni's less than impressive family credentials aside; most of the teachers had a way of culling and killing the spirits of the students for even the slightest infractions. A girl once arrived to class a minute late, and her teacher for that class didn't stop reprimanding her in front of the entire class until she burst into tears. The teachers would be remarkably personal while doing so. They called it "negative reinforcement", Agni called it bullying and she refused to be subjected to it. Most teachers had learned a long time ago that the quickest way to a kicked in kneecap was making a snide comment about the young girl's upbringing or family situation.

However, compared to her other problems, the staff were the least of Agni's worries. The students were much more vicious and far greater in number. The stuck-up rich brats were simply unbearable. They all came from prestigious families with millions to burn and they thought that because of their money they were above the common masses, and even one another. Agni's mere existence seemed to challenge their preconceived notions and make her a target for ridicule.

If it wasn't elitist garbage like how her family was the only one not vacationing in the Caribbean on their own private yacht, then it was the fact that she had such pasty white skin from that gross makeup she needed to slather on every exposed surface of her body. Ever since she'd turned four, her grandmother would make her wear the awful stuff even though it choked her pores and made her itch terribly. Sometimes she entertained the fantasy of simply not wearing it one day to see if the students would manage to treat her even worse. She honestly doubted that that was humanly possible, but she'd been wrong before.

Looking back on it, what really pissed the green girl off was all the time she had wasted trying to win some of them over, to avoid feeling so damned alone all the time. For the first couple of years she had done her best, being as polite as possible, giving what she felt she had too, asking if she could join in with other groups at lunch, and so forth. The sick thing was that the evil little pre-debutants always pretended to be so accepting and polite, getting little Agni to lower her guard and then once things seemed to be going the emerald-eyed girl's way, they would crush her down in some humiliating scenario, always with as many eyewitnesses as physically manageable.

It was by fourth grade that Agni decided that enough was enough, and then declared open war on any and all of them. She didn't care much for their way of doing things though. If the thief's daughter wanted to she could have planned something out that would have put their humiliating little schemes to shame, but she lacked the patience for such matters. No, all she cared to do was the oldest, simplest, most direct form of retaliation in known history, violence. The prim and proper rich girls quickly learned to back off for the most part when they realized that a smart comment earned them a black eye. It was very much in Agni's favor that they had such a low tolerance for discomfort.

Most learned early that the thief's daughter was by no means an easy target anymore, but for a few others however, it simply fed a spark of derision that was already there. There were certain girls in the school that felt personally insulted by Agni's very presence and decided that it was their duty to crush her despite the new inherent risks. Those girls played mean and didn't pull their punches when it came to ruining Agni's life and the teachers always seemed to act in those girl' favor. Finding her report missing from her locker practically screamed of that cabal's dirty work.

'_Was it Angela? She had as good a reason as any; I did break her nose, not that she won't have her daddy buy her a new one… Rebecca? Hmm… naw, she's a coward and so is Angela for that matter. How the hell did they even get my combo?'_ If she didn't find where her paper was soon, Agni was loath thinking what may occur.

She began to retrace her steps, but something on the tile floor suddenly caught her attention. The object in question was a torn up slip of paper roughly the size of a credit card. She reached down and picked it up; to get a closer look and to banish the cold chill running up her spine. It was frayed around the edges to show it had been ripped off a larger sheet; the typeface formed her name and bits and pieces of her written work. Several more pieces dangled from the sides of a wastepaper bin.

Agni's eyes widened in horror, and for a moment she felt faint. Whoever had taken her paper had torn it to shreds. The paper was due in five minutes and she needed, absolutely _needed_ to turn it in to Mrs. Turler by the beginning of the period. The nasty old bitch would never accept anything late from her, even with a first-rate excuse. She doubted it, but she would need to go up to Mrs. Turler to beg and humble herself and maybe, in a one-in-a-billion chance, the old Gorgon might concede to wait a while longer for Agni to reprint it.

Agni bit her lip hard enough to draw blood. She'd known that something like this would happen; this always happened. No one at this god forsaken and retched place would ever give her a break and just leave her alone. She understood after awhile that she would make no friends there, so she learned to keep to herself. However that didn't stop them from doing their level best to break her, regardless. Reflexively her fist flew out and put a sizable dent in her locker door.

'_Dammit to Hell!'_ She turned, like a man being led to the gallows, and marched forth towards the classroom.

It was early before the bell as Agni made her way into Turler's office. All the other students were probably situated throughout the canteen, so she'd have some blessed privacy as she prostrated herself before this harpy. As usual, Mrs. Turler was focused on some trashy paperback romance. '_Probably to escape from her crappy marriage, I'll bet.'_

Agni cleared her throat to alert the woman that she was no longer alone in the room. Turler quickly turned her age-worn face in the young girl's direction. The older woman's sallow eyes narrowed behind her tacky horn-rimmed reading glasses.

"Miss. Drago, do you need something?" Her voice dripped acid. This wasn't going to go well.

"Um, yes Mrs. Turler. It's about the finals assignment-"

"The one which is due in fifteen minutes with absolutely _no_ exceptions, that final?" Turler asked cutting Agni off. The girl winced inwardly.

"Yeah, that one," She looked down at her feet, "Something happened and it's been, um…"

The teacher interlaced her fingers together in her lap and looked down at Agni with obvious downplayed amusement. "It has been what?"

'_This bitch knows what I'm trying to say, she just wants me to say it. She's actually _enjoying_ this!' _Agni unconsciously reopened the wound on her inner lip.

"I just… lost it. Um, but listen I've got it all saved, I swear! So if you just let me reprint it I can…" She stopped when she saw the gaze she was receiving.

"Miss. Drago, you know my policy on late assignments. I have zero tolerance for tardiness." Agni could swear that she heard Turler think the words, _and I have an even lower tolerance for _you, but she chalked it up to healthy paranoia. She resisted the urge to slap her cheeks to clear her thoughts.

"I-I mean my assignment was destroyed after I brought it here ma'am! I promise it won't take me more than an hour to get you a new copy!"

The older woman didn't quite smirk, but her eyes certainly brightened. "But Miss. Drago, you don't have an hour. As I said earlier, you have fifteen-" she looked up at the clock and shook her head, "I'm sorry I mean _thirteen_ minutes before class begins."

Agni tried to keep from grimacing. "But ma'am I-"

"I suppose you'll simply have to accept a zero."

For a moment Agni thought the old woman was about to laugh. She doubted she would be able to resist setting the bitch's desk alight if she did. Turler however was not finished.

"There is a lesson here for you to learn from, Miss Drago. Be more careful with your things."

Finally, she settled back in and returned to her abandoned novel.

'_BITCH! I-I could just- __**ARGH**__!!'_ Agni couldn't even think straight she was so angry! Someone needed to pay, and pay dearly or so help her she would lose her mind! It took all of her strength to keep from flaring up her hands and throwing her teacher through the second story window. However, a stray thought quickly cut her anger out from under her.

'_Oh my god, Grandma's gonna _kill_ me!'_

When Agni thought about what her report card was going to look like, she felt like she might throw up. She honestly did not want to know what her grandmother might think when she laid eyes on it. As far as Agni was concerned, that woman was easily the most terrifying soul she'd ever met. Something about that woman's eyes was simply less than human; more like something that escaped from a nightmare. Now, Gram Roza had never laid a hand on her to be sure; but something told the pale-green girl that if she ever did, her head would land somewhere separate from her body. Anyone that commanded as much fear as Roza Drago was not someone to be trifled with.

As bad as this school could be, her home was even worse. It was almost like being grounded for the entirety of her life. Agni was almost never allowed to leave, and her Uncle Hego was always made to babysit her as though she couldn't take care of herself. The big blue idiot acted like she was a Molotov cocktail just waiting to burst all over his face. It seemed as though it was all one great calculated attempt to make sure the young girl didn't end up like "that embarrassment" as Gram Roza liked to put it.

Agni's internal reverie was cut off when she heard muffled laughter from the hallway. She looked about and slowly eased her way out the door. While she was never allowed to leave in her house in theory; that didn't stop the girl from constantly sneaking out when the mood struck. It had taken her years of trial and error, of always getting caught and punished, but by the age of twelve Agni could out-sneak a ninja. To the group laughing outside she may as well have teleported in to place.

"Care to share what's so funny?"

The group consisted of several peons of minor note, but the girl standing at their center was the one she spoke directly to. Her name was Cassandra, and somewhere in their five years of knowing one another, the brunette debutant had made it her sworn duty to drag Agni through every humiliating, painful, and often debilitating scheme she could conjure in that warped little mind of hers. It didn't help matters that she was as cunning as she was sadistic and always treated Agni as a personal plaything; in spite of the numerous black eyes and fractured noses the pale girl put her through.

Cassandra turned suddenly when she saw Agni looming over her, but quickly regained her cool. "What's funny? Nothing, Agni dear, nothing comes to mind."

Agni hated that; that sickeningly sweet and friendly voice the girl always used. It worked to win over everyone but her. Well that wasn't exactly true, it had worked on her at first but after the milk-carton incident she'd learned better.

Cassandra looked over at the flunkies surrounding her. "We were just discussing what we thought we would get on _finals_…" Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "I'll be getting an A of course, what about you, Agni dear? I'm sure you'll be doing _very_ well."

Agni's lips pulled into a strained grin, and she uncrossed her arms. "Well, since you asked so nicely Cassi, I think I'll be getting a big fat _F_. You see, someone got into my locker, probably by bribing some teacher, and then they took my completed assignment and tore it to bits so that the Turler could flunk me like she's always wanted to. You know, your favorite teacher?"

Ignoring the truncating of her usually full and regal name to "Cassi", Cassandra laughed lightly with her hand over her mouth. "My you spin such interesting tales, Agni dear." She smirked. "So tell me, who pray tell perpetrated such a dastardly plot?"

Agni stepped back and shrugged. "No idea, but when I figure it out I intend to do something like-"

She rushed forward and slammed Cassandra against one of the lockers as hard as she could, her fingers crunching down on the other girls shoulders, "-_this_!"

Her accomplices took that as their cue to run. They learned the hard way long ago to not act against the pale girl while she was in a violent mood.

"T-tell me, Agni dear," she asked grimacing in pain. Cassandra gritted her teeth in pain but wouldn't allow Agni the benefit of a scream. "I heard that your parents were serial killers and _that's_ why you live with relatives-"

She was cut off as Agni's grip tightened but then continued despite the unspoken threat, "It made far too much sense for me not to enquire."

Agni got right in Cassandra's face so that there was barely three inches between them. Her voice was hardly above a whisper, but the prone girl heard her loud and clear. "My parents are off limits, Cassi _dear_. I've been pulling my punches since you're as fragile as a used tissue; but get in my face _ever _again…"

Her voice lowered to scarcely a hiss, "and I. Will. Hurt. You."

Agni looked over when she heard Cassandra's flunkies and a teacher running towards them. Being in no mood to deal with the school's idea of discipline, she released Cassandra's shoulders before bolting down the hallway like a rocket and disappearing from sight around the corner. When the teacher finally rounded the bend to retrieve the girl, she was nowhere in sight.

Outside, Agni landed hard on the ground, having used the ivy coating the side of the building to scale the wall to a safe distance before dropping to her feet. It was not the first time she'd decided to simply cut and run when things got too overwhelming. Agni couldn't think of a single reason to stay any longer considering she only showed up in the first place to turn in her paper, and that had turned out to be a useless gesture.

She decided it was a good time to end her school day and walked over to the rock where she typically hid her spare clothes for just such an occasion. Her uniform stuck out like a sore thumb when worn in the middle of the day in town, after all. When she reached over to grab her sweatshirt she noticed something red on her fingertips. The pale girl angled her hand up to look and she saw what looked like tiny blood stains on most of her nails. Agni frowned, and tongued the cut in her lip. She hadn't meant to grab on to Cassandra that hard, and knowing that she drew blood troubled her. It wasn't so much that she hurt Cassandra, but that she'd lost control, which bothered her. A shiner was one thing but Agni _never_ used her powers in front of people and that included her honed fingernails. It was easy to forget how hard and sharp her nails were compared to the average girl's.

'_Why does she keep trying to break me, when she knows what that will lead to? She always acts like it doesn't matter that I'll hurt her. Sometimes… I think she actually _enjoys_ it.' _The creepiest part of it all was the rumor that Cassandra had allegedly instructed all the other girls in her circle of influence to deny Agni's involvement. Whenever they went to the nurse with bruises or other such injuries garnered by attempting foul acts on the thief's daughter, nothing was reported. No one went against Cassandra's wishes within the Go Academy, so Agni generally got away with most things, but the motive behind this was disturbingly sinister rather than benevolent.

Near as the pale girl could figure, Cassandra _enjoyed_ tampering with Agni's life. It was some sadistic pastime for her and anyone who stood in the way of that…

'_But still… even she and her cronies are not going to be able to deny what I did… I really dug myself a hole this time.'_

Every now and then Agni acknowledged her tendency to lose her temper and go overboard. She made an honest attempt to keep from doing that, but it was so hard at times. When things were at their worst she could feel the energy coursing through her veins just begging to be released. Sometimes it almost ached, making her blood burn. If Agni wasn't very careful, she knew that she could easily kill someone. Frankly, she wondered how her mother managed to attack with her power on full and at the same time avoid fatalities.

Shaking her head, Agni wiped her hands off on her uniform and pulled on her favorite black sweatshirt. She had no intention of going home until at least eight since her Grandparents would undoubtedly be receiving a call from the school sometime in the immediate future. She would wait until the last minute to deal with them. Until then, she would probably waste her time in the mall arcade. It was her usual relaxation spot when she couldn't go home and veg, and the regular patrons knew not to trouble her. She stood and quickly bolted into the woods as she heard the school's security approach.

* * *

Back in the here and now, Agni frowned and leaned her forehead against the wall beneath the showerhead, allowing the scalding water to pour over her head and wash away the shampoo in her hair.

'_And that was the beginning of the worst summer ever! On top of being punished for my grades, which wasn't even my fault, I also had to deal with hurting that bitch Cassi. Not that it matters anymore. I won't be going back there! EVER!' _She made a fist as she steeled her resolve on the matter. Her claws dug into her palms. For all of her assuredness, however, she couldn't think of what to do about the problem at hand.

Agni doubted Kim Possible had any intention of actually helping her; she probably just said that to calm the pale girl down. If anything, she would probably nod her head sympathetically, give her some empty pep talk and then send her home to the wolves.

'_Well screw that! The moment I get a chance I am _so_ gone.' _She reached over and turned the nozzle until the water pouring from the showerhead tapered off.

'_I'll see what Kim's selling, but I don't intend to buy.'_

Chapter 4: End

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**Many Thanks to Eoraptor for looking this chapter over. And remember, if you've enjoyed this chapter, or even if you hated it; Please Review. Thank You.**


	5. It was a Dark and Stormy Night

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 5: It was a Dark and Stormy Night**

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---Somewhere, Nowhere---

Shego ran.

She ran, oblivious to all distraction, having no time or inclination to take note of the icy October rain drenching her uniform, or of the numbing pain from her rushed footfalls as her boots struck hard against the wet asphalt. She was even incapable of noticing the deafening crash of thunder resonating between the skyscrapers around her. All she could focus on was the dark, monolithic structure looming before her. There stood her goal, and somewhere inside...

Finding herself near the obstructed entryway, Shego, without so much as pausing, lit her right fist, engulfing it in roiling green star flame. Seconds later, the entrance was reduced to a melted ruin, allowing the green hero free passage into its shadowed-over interior.

Like a woman possessed, Shego dashed up and around the stone steps, through the gaping holes in the unfinished brick walls and underneath the ceiling of unfixed girders. Indeed, though her path was littered with obstacles, she never once slowed.

All the while, the heroine cautiously evaded every twisting and writhing shadow along the ground. All the darkened corners around her seemed to be reaching towards her like inky black tendrils, hungry and grasping. A quiet hiss of a voice echoed through the living darkness, mocking her lack of progress.

_HURRY, MISS SSSSSHEGO…_ The voice was melodic and silky, but drawn out unnaturally like a snake's hiss. _I'M LOSING MY PATIENCE…_

Shego hissed through her teeth and picked up her already astounding pace. Her goal was clear as she ran up and up and up, towards the darkness of the unfinished upper stories. Even within the confined space, rain continued to fall from every exposed opening, intermingling with the sweat on the young woman's brow; sweat formed out of fear, fear born not from self-preservation but of great concern for another.

_I'M GLAD YOU CAME ALONE LIKE I ASKED, MISS SSSSSHEGO…_ A rough and sickening snort of laughter resounded off the walls. _AFTER ALL, YOUR BROTHERS WERE _NOT_ INVITED …_

Shego growled and lit up both of her hands as she jumped a gap separating two sections of floor. The bright green light forced all of the surrounding predatory umbra to back away. Those tendrils too close to the neon green radiance retreated with an almost audible screech. She shouted at the surrounding darkness as she made her way upward.

"You hurt her, I will rip your beating heart out of your chest and burn it to a Goddamn crisp! You hear me, you twisted prick!? If you even _scratch_ her--"

Suddenly the voice lost all its jubilation and settled into a more vicious hiss, promising violence. _SCRATCH HER?_ _I'M GOING TO _KILL _HER, ESPECIALLY IF YOU DON'T HURRY…_

Shego bit her lip and continued her rush upwards, ignoring the acidic hiss reverberating off the walls around her. Thin nightmarish tendrils of inky blackness lapped at her heels, every footstep held at bay only by her burning green power. When she finally reached the roof, she was faced with both her enemy and her goal.

The villainous... _thing_ called "The Bogeyman" stood on the end of an exposed girder emerging from the unfinished rooftop; it was currently the highest point in the building. Twisting and arching shadows rose up from the floor around him like sable flame, roiling and flicking about his lower extremities. What had the teen's undivided attention, however, was the shadow's hand; more specifically, the tiny green throat the hand was wrapped around. The gleaming black claws of Bogeyman's other hand orbited mere inches above a shivering head of short black hair. The heroine's gaze settled on a pair of wide emerald eyes, raw with tears, silently pleading for help, body bound tightly in several thick black belts.

"Oh God, Agni..."

Bogeyman looked up at Shego, his expression hidden behind a featureless ivory-white mask that stood in stark contrast to his jet-black attire. When he spoke, the silky hiss was gone, replaced by a synthetic rasp.

"I'm so glad you could make it, Miss Shego, because I'm only _moments_ away from killing your daughter, and I _certainly_ wouldn't want to deprive you of _that_. After all, a mother should _always_ be present for all the important events in her child's life, don't you agree?"

"Give her back to me. _Now_." Her voice was quiet, barely enough to hear above the din of the storm. However, the sheer icy hatred in her tone was communicated clearly enough.

The grip around the tiny throat tightened just enough for the teen to pale and take a step back. The malevolent voice spoke.

"Be mindful of your tone, my dear. You wouldn't want to _frighten_ me, would you?" He giggled, then looked down at the tiny figure in his dark arms. "The family resemblance is _uncanny_… You must be _so_ proud. I can't help but inquire as to her father's identity…" He paused, and then shook his head, "Actually, I couldn't care less." He cast the small girl a meaningful look and sighed with an orgasmic glee, which caused Shego to tense up involuntarily.

"She is so _young_, and so untouched by the wrath and avarice of this world." He looked back up at the hero. "Watching her die… it would be such beautiful _art_. Perhaps one such as _yourself_ would not be able to appreciate the full _complexity_ and _scope_ of such a work, but it _is_ art nonetheless. Perhaps I might demonstrate...?"

Shego's face contorted in a fiery demonic rage at his words. Her powers flared momentarily and illuminated the darkened sky like another bolt of lighting. "If you don't put her down _right fucking now_, I swear to God, I'll-"

Her words were cut off when she saw him drag the claw on his right thumb across the girl's cheek, leaving a line of dripping iridescent green in its wake. The sound of her daughter crying out through her gag caused Shego's breath to catch in her throat.

"Do I have your full and undivided attention now? _Excellent_... As you can so _plainly_ see, _I_ have the hostage, _I_ have control, and _I_ am the one who dictates the direction of these events." He smirked when she swallowed nervously and took a step back. "Ah, finally, a reaction motivated by some semblance of intelligence."

She lowered her head, her bangs hiding her expression. "...What do you want?"

He tsked and shook his head. "What do _I_ want? I want you, Miss Shego, to _suffer_. You _and_ your brothers."

"Why!?"

He looked up at her. "Because you made a fool of me. You and all your cohorts. Humiliation is not something I abide."

"You're sick."

"Indeed, and quite put out. Quite an unpleasant combination. For _you_, at any rate." He added a new cut to the girl's forehead, slicing down across the previous cut on her cheek and forming a misshapen dripping green 'X'. Agni thrashed back and forth in his arms, forcing him to tighten his grip.

Shego roared out and ran forward, the green aura around her hands erupting like trailing comets. The metal surrounding them began to warp and fold from the sheer heat, and the living shadows screamed out in pain and retreated as the light carved away at them.

When the jade hero was mere steps away from tearing the monstrous freak in two, he sighed melodramatically and held up the bound body of her child. At the last second, before the burning claws could rip into the bastard's masked face, she saw the frightened eyes of her child directly in front of her and came to an abrupt halt. She remembered the position she was in, as harsh reason returned to her.

It was a horrible hopeless feeling, seeing the one person she loved in the hands of a monster. It was her first true taste of utter despair. All she could do was watch him hurt her child, and hurt _her_ by proxy. As psychotic as he was, The Bogeyman was not stupid. He'd leave her no openings to exploit, no chance to save her four-year-old.

"Such _impressive_ restraint," Bogeyman exclaimed proudly. "For an instant, I thought you cared more about maiming _me_ than saving _her_." He shrugged. "I can't help wondering, however, what would happen if I did _this_?" In one lightning-quick motion, Bogeyman put the girl in his other hand, whipped that arm around, and held her by her neck over the edge of the fifty-story construction site. The small girl had stopped struggling, far too stunned to move. Shego felt her heart seize in her chest.

"_DON'T_!"

"Make your choice, Miss Shego… Her, or me?" He laughed lightly. "Oh, I'm sorry, that wasn't a choice at all. Silly me." Without hesitation, he loosened his grip, and the pale girl slipped from his fingers just as Shego began to scream out in agony. Without hesitation, she vaulted off the roof.

The world went away. There was Agni and there was the ground, and one could _not_ meet the other.

Shego stretched her arms forward as she fell, stretching out as far as she could for the falling girl. Second after second, she closed the gap between them. Her clawed fingertips were soon less than an inch away. For a moment she felt hope, as her fingers glanced against the falling body. However, just as suddenly that hope was dashed into pure despair as a spectral limb shot from the shadows beside her and wrapped tightly around her ankle. The tiny body fell well beyond her grip and rushed downward towards the streets below.

"Choke on your hubris as you _WATCH HER DIE_!"

"_AAAAAAAAGGGG_--"

-- -- --

---Shego's apartment: The Present---

"--_NNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII_!"

Shego shot up in her bed, sweat pouring down her face. That nightmare again. She could still feel the cold Go City air rushing past her, even as sweat drenched her body. She couldn't stop hyperventilating. Her heart was pulsing explosively within her chest, and goose bumps rose all across her skin.

'_It's okay! Everything's okay! Agni's fine and _he_ is gone for good. Kaput! _Dead_! Get _that_ through your _idiot head_, Shego!'_

After five minutes, her panic attack settled down. Her fear-drunk mind began to clear. She took a final deep breath and slowly lay back down against her pillows. She reached for the bottled water next to her on the nightstand and took a deep drink before wiping her mouth and shaking her head bitterly.

"Goddamned nightmares."

She noticed thin wisps of smoke wafting past her face and glanced around, trying to find their source. Her brow furrowed as she saw the two deep black burn marks on either side of her body seared completely through the covers and mattress. As usual.

"I guess it's time for my annual mattress shopping. Beautiful."

It was a nightmare that seemed to visit her at least once a year, usually around her birthday. Which, oddly, wasn't for another month.

"Oh, fantastic. Yeah, I really need _two_ monthly mood-ruiners. Just _great_. Son of a _bitch_..."

Shego looked at the clock and groaned. Normally, she made it a point to never sleep as late as she had today. However she considered it acceptable this one time, considering she hadn't gotten to sleep until around 6am that very morning. Tracking her stray daughter had taken _that_ long.

-- -- --

---Middleton: Earlier---

Shego was honestly not surprised when she entered her room at 3:30 in the morning to check on Agni and found her daughter nowhere in sight. Most mothers probably would have panicked, or grabbed for the phone to call the local authorities. Shego never did anything the ordinary way, however. At seeing her window open, she merely leaned against her wall and sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

'_Dammit, Agni. Can't you understand that I'm _way _too tired to deal with this right now?'_

She stuck her head out the window and looked around to get some indication of where the girl had gone. Small flattened holes were melted into the brickwork leading down; Agni had apparently used her power to slowly and soundlessly melt handholds to ease herself down to the street. Shego smirked despite herself. Her daughter was very good, no doubt about it; certainly better than Shego had been at her age. Although, to be perfectly honest, Shego had spent most of her time learning how _not_ to set fire to everything around her. Stealth hadn't exactly been a concern back then. Agni, on the other hand, had had her entire life to get used to her powers.

Shego eased herself out the window, landing gracefully on the street below.

'_Now where did you get to…?'_

The thief certainly _could_ have tracked the girl pretty easily, but there was a far easier technique at her disposal and this was one of the only scenarios where it was useful for anything. She'd be damned if she would waste this opportunity. Shego closed her eyes and concentrated hard.

Shego was entirely unsurprised that the girl didn't know about this technique. It _had_ been eight years, after all, and Agni had been four at the time Shego left. The technique was quite simple in theory; Shego and Agni had the same powers, the same physiology, the same energy, the same blood. Ergo, they were linked in a way most mothers and daughters weren't. One could simply _sense_ where the other had been. An overprotective parent would have _killed_ for such a power.

Shego closed her eyes. Her concentration focused inward, and forced away all sensory distraction. Tapping into her glow on an entirely mental level was exhausting, and she was years out of practice.

After five minutes, the thief felt a tug at her consciousness. Opening her eyes, Shego could she a faint glowing green trail heading off in the northeastern direction. At the familiar sight and sensation, the thief smiled wistfully. It really had been awhile.

She regretted that she couldn't use that trick on anyone but Agni, because if it also worked on her brothers, she would have always known when to disappear. _'_And _I wouldn't have caught Hego in the bathroom that one time... Aaaaand _that's _an image that won't leave my head for a few weeks, easy. Great job, brain.'_

Shego sighed. _'Dammit, if I could just _visit_ her, I could teach her all this crap _I_ had to learn on my own.' _The power they both possessed was extremely versatile, certainly the most versatile of the Drago siblings' powers. There were so many uses for it that could never be learned from a letter.

'_God, there's _so much _she needs to know. Maybe…' _She halted that train of thought before it had a chance to go anywhere foolish. '_You lost the right to teach her anything a long time ago. Get over it, Shego. Just let it go.'_

Shaking her head, Shego shifted her focus back to the task at hand: retrieving her rebellious daughter. She got inside her nearby car; the engine gave a dissonant roar when she turned the key. She pulled out of the parking lot, her eyes never straying from the radiant green trail.

As she drove, she remembered the conversation she had had with her mother a few hours ago. The woman was as much of a scary bitch now as she had been when Shego had been Agni's age. Her father was the one that did most of the actual _raising_, but when it had come to matters of discipline and punishment, he had always stepped aside like the inveterate coward he was and allowed her mother to do as she pleased.

Roza never liked to be bothered with her family unless circumstances warranted it, and Shego's early rebellious streak warranted it very early on. Sometimes Shego got herself into trouble just to upset the woman, which never worked out as she would have liked. Shego's little rebellions never got her mother's attention, just that same hardened, expressionless stare. It was like Roza had simply decided early on that it wasn't worth her time to even _punish_ the girl.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that it had probably been her father Dmitri's idea to have children. He was the overaffectionate softie of the family after all. Her mother probably just did it so he would have something to do.

'_And now Agni has to deal with the same unbelievable bullshit I was subjected to. Jesus, it's no wonder she ran off. I honestly can't blame her; I'd have done the exact same thing. Hell, I guess I kinda _did_.'_

The only reason Shego hadn't run away in her youth was out of sheer spite. She simply didn't want to make her mother's life that easy. Part of the pale thief wished she could shed her desperately stubborn streak for all the trouble it put her through; but another part of her noted that, had it not been for her spiteful side, Agni would not have existed a few weeks beyond her conception. Even that choice to keep the only person she currently gave a damn about was born from spite.

'_God, was _that _a day!' _The day Shego told her mother she was pregnant had been nothing short of a catastrophe. Her entire family had nearly come to blows over that mess. Shego made a point to _not_ think about that day or any of the days that closely followed, for now at least. The last thing she needed was to be angrier than she was.

After following the iridescent trail for the better part of an hour, Shego's brow furrowed. There was _no way_ she was headed where it _looked_ like she was headed.

It didn't seem, well, _possible_.

For a moment, she entertained the idea that she was following some crazily intricate wild goose chase that her twelve-year-old had devised. As unlikely as that seemed, it was still easier to believe than the apparent reality. As far as she could tell, Agni was heading straight towards Kimmie's house.

'_What the _hell _is she doing running this way? She's not actually heading over to _Pumpkin's _house, is she? No, couldn't be, she could barely stand to be in the same _room _as Kimmie.' _After a moment's consideration, she shook her head and laughed in exasperation. '_She probably figured this would throw me off. If I couldn't see her energy trail, it probably would have. Heh, she's even more stubborn than I am.'_

When she reached the Possibles' neighborhood, she parked a few blocks away to avoid alerting anyone in the house. It was still pretty early, but there was a small chance that Kimmie's family might be awake. Things would have been much easier if the family wasn't familiar with her face. She would have to approach stealthily to avoid anything… _troublesome_.

Silently, she approached the Possible residence and went around to the back, where the wall ascended up to what looked like an attic window. All her senses told her that this was where Agni had run off to, and that she was up there currently. That much became obvious as she inspected the wall. Similar melted claw marks in the brick led up to the window, and they looked exactly the same as the marks on Shego's apartment building. Subtlety wasn't exactly the kid's strong suit.

Using the handholds her daughter had thoughtfully provided, Shego climbed up and peered into the window, only to suddenly lose her balance and fall hard to the ground. She wasn't usually this clumsy, but she had just seen something that logic and the laws of the universe had very recently deemed _impossible_.

'_It couldn't be! I'm just really, _REALLY _tired...'_

Taking a deep breath, Shego slowly crept back up the wall, this time making sure to steady herself before looking in. She peered into the room, then closed her eyes, then opened them again. No, the obvious hallucination was still there. She cautiously shifted her weight to her right side, so that she could rub her eyes with the side of her left hand. The scene remained, illuminated by the full moon and clear starry sky above.

Her surly, troublesome daughter and the girl she maintained a bitter rivalry with were both sleeping… in the same bed… in one another's _arms_… and looked like they were both fairly comfortable in that position. It simply did not add up.

Of course, she'd fully expected to find Agni in there; however, she'd thought that the girl would be hiding in the closet until the coast was clear, not in Kimmie's _bed_. Despite herself, she felt a deep searing anger begin to boil in the pit of her stomach. '_What the hell!? She hates Kimmie! Is she _that _desperate!? I bet this is some way of getting back at _me_! That little...'_

After a moment of giving in to those feelings, Shego sighed and shook them off. '_Agni wouldn't have run from me if she thought she had a choice. Not from _me_. Maybe… maybe I should try to find some other way. _I _certainly can't take care of her, not after...' 'But I'd really be the bitch_ _of all bitches if I thought I could just forget about her needs… I'm _not _like my mother. I _won't _just forget about her because it's easier.'_

Shego suddenly realized that she had been watching the two sleeping girls for over ten minutes. Agni's calm expression didn't hide the dark lines under her eyes, evidence of her exhausting trip to run to her mother's arms, a trip that seemed to have ended in utter failure. She suppressed a sigh and leapt from where she hung outside the window to the soft grass. '_Well, _I _wanna vomit._ _This is 'cause of me. She looks like that, she put herself through all that crap... for _me_. And I told her I'd feed her to the damn scorpions. Again. Because she makes me _uncomfortable_. And she _still _looks up to me! She looks up to me and I can't even..._'

Shego sighed and looked at the moonlit grass. _'I'll come back later, when they're awake. I'd be _such_ a bitch if I woke her up like that _and_ dragged her back to my parents on top of that. I need time to think about things… Maybe I'll bust Drakken out to clear my head. He's probably plenty pissed by now, considering how I bailed on him.' _Shego considered her options as she walked back to her car.

Above all other things though, she intended to finally get some rest. Working on only three hours' sleep was _not_ helping her think. She briefly considered the idea that her parents were probably expecting Agni back sometime soon.

'_Screw 'em.'_ She shrugged those thoughts away with a tired grin.

-- -- --

---Shego's Apartment: The Present (Again)---

Shego's plan to free her inept employer had fallen through when she had realized she was simply not in the mood to blast into the prison, grab Drakken, and then fight her way back out. All the while, of course, she'd be dealing with the blue dolt's incessant whining about "the proper way for an employee to behave..." And all because she'd bailed on his idiotic Las Vegas ice dome "operation" for a perfectly legitimate reason! And she couldn't even _tell_ Drakken said legitimate reason! No, she was decidedly _not_ ready for _that_ tearful reunion just yet.

So she settled on the far more inviting option; going home, curling up in bed, and praying for some much-needed respite. But. of course, she couldn't even be allowed _that_.

The emerald thief felt drained and heavy as she eased herself down at her kitchen table, balancing two slices of toast and a glass of orange juice in both hands. She generally felt pretty out of it for the entire day whenever she had that nightmare. However, she didn't have the option of merely lying back for the day and calming her nerves as was her usual routine. Above all else, she needed to figure out what to do to help her daughter.

She idly chewed on a piece of toast as she glanced over her shoulder at the small digital clock. The small red numbers told her it was one in the afternoon.

'_Kim should definitely be up by now.' _Shego thought idly. Despite that estimate, she didn't want to get up and perform her motherly duties any more than she had in the early morning.

'_What am I gonna say to Agni? "I'm sorry things are tough, deal with it?" or maybe, "Eighteen isn't that far away, you know." Oh, that's _good_, Shego, _really_ good. Gosh, you are _such_ a boon to your daughter's life. Christ, I'm an idiot...' _She sighed and reclined in her seat, completely ignorant as to the best solution.

And too stubborn to ask the one person who might be able to help her…

Chapter 5: End

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**This chapter is all thanks to the awe-inspiring Eoraptor and Ffordesoon. Again, much love for you two for putting up with me. ;) And as usual, remember to review.**


	6. People Talking Without Listening

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 6: People Talking Without Listening**

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"I can't believe you wanna eat at this disgusting _sty_."

Kim frowned and looked over at her diminutive companion. They were currently standing outside of her usual afternoon place of leisure, the local Bueno Nacho.

On the way to the restaurant, Agni had been remarkably tight-lipped, usually responding to Kim's prompts with monosyllabic grunts and shrugs, or, more often than not, simply ignoring the redhead entirely. The pale girl's withering appraisal of their destination was the first full sentence she had spoken since Kim had insisted she take a shower.

Kim's rejoinder was laced with an equal dose of vinegar. "I thought all _little_ children _liked_ fast food." She stressed the word "little" because she knew it would get a rise out of the twelve-year-old. Kim _hated_ when kids thought they knew so much better than their elders (the Tweebs were a fine example of such affronts). The verbal barb apparently struck home, as Agni suddenly halted mid-step and flashed the teen a venomous emerald glare.

"I ain't little, ya prissy bitch! And you'd hate this place too if your uncle's idea of making dinner was this take-out _junk_ Every! SINGLE! _NIGHT_!"

'_Uncle? Oh, Hego, yeah. Man, have _I _been off my game. I'd probably get pretty sick of this stuff too if I had to eat it every day.' _Kim shrugged.

"I see your point, but I'm meeting my boy--" She shook her head and frowned at the slip, prompting a frown from Agni. "My, ah, _best_ friend here later. And I don't trust the Tweebs to not bother us while we talk."

Agni raised her eyebrow at the unfamiliar term. "Tweebs? …Oh, I get it. Clever. If you're freakin' _six_..."

She shoved her hands into the pockets of the sweatshirt Kim had lent her earlier and walked inside without another word, forcing Kim to jog forward to catch up.

Yesterday, before Agni had first appeared, Kim had made plans with Ron to talk about… well, a lot of things, to be perfectly honest. Their fleeting romance was, to her mind, the issue of the day. Essentially, Kim just needed some closure regarding the events of their separation, which was, for all intents and purposes, mutually agreed upon. The problem, however, was less clear-cut: in the two weeks following their breakup, Ron was constantly going out of his way to change the subject, or to immerse himself in activities solely to prevent Kim from speaking with him. It was depressingly obvious how much effort Ron was putting forth to avoid dealing with the topic. Their entire dynamic as BFFs was unraveling with every awkward exchange and overwrought silence.

'_I can _understand _wanting to avoid talking about it… hell, even I'm uncomfortable bringing it up, but it's like… it's just like… like he's pretending we were _never _together in the _first _place. Every time, _every time _I even _start _to tilt our conversations _toward _the _subject_, he either leaves for the bathroom, or changes the subject, or makes up some cruddy excuse and _bails_! It is _so _friggin' _irritating_! Was it really _that _bad? I mean, it wasn't like we got into an argument or anything, we just... There wasn't any drama. It just… we just fizzled out… just like that. I mean, two months of going out and having fun and then it just... _stopped_. Isn't Ron even a _little _curious?'_

Nevertheless, with Agni there, their would be no way Kim could even _attempt_ to bring up their post-breakup sitch. At least, not until the current and more pressing sitch was taken care of. Not that Kim had even the _slightest_ idea when that would be.

For all Kim knew, Shego herself could pop out of thin air and take the troublesome girl off her hands. Until that happened, however, Kim was on her own. And she'd told the little urbanite that she would try to help her.

It was for that reason Kim decided to arrive at the BN a half-hour early. It'd make things easier to try to talk to Agni before hand, and possibly get to the root of the kid's problems.

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When they entered the building, rather then walk up to the front counter to order anything, Agni just found a booth near the window and sat as close to the glass as possible. Watching the display, Kim just sighed and shrugged. If Agni didn't want to eat, Kim couldn't force her. Kim got herself an enchirito and a large Professor Pepper, then sat down across from the pale twelve-year-old.

Agni sat with her face resting on her right hand and stared with unfocused eyes out the window. Kim was sure that something was bothering the girl; she'd been acting standoffish and brooding ever since she got out of the shower. '_I guess she took stock of her sitch and didn't like what she saw. Makes sense, I guess.'_

"Um, are you _sure_ you're not hungry?" Kim asked. "You really should eat something. Your diet hasn't been exactly, um, _dietary_ for the last couple of days. The food pyramid is a _pyramid_, you know. Not a _stone_." The redhead had no idea how Agni had managed to make that trip solely based on whatever snacks she could fit in her pockets. It was actually pretty amazing, if Kim was being honest with herself. But the fact remained that the waffles Agni had ordered late last night had likely been the only meal she'd eaten in the last three days, and those had still been _waffles_.

Agni slowly looked up at Kim with an unreadable expression before lowering her head to look back out at the view beyond the glass.

"Why the hell do you _care_, anyway? I mean, I get that there's that whole 'Lookit me, I'm a teen hero, I save kittens from trees' thing you do. But, I mean… c'mon, I'm your worst enemy's _kid_. Shouldn't that, I dunno, _bug_ you? I was you, I'd be doing everything I could to get rid of me right now. _In fact_, if I was _you_, I'd'a sent _my_ tiny ass packing _yesterday_." Her tone had barely any inflection, spoken like a bored robot reading off a script.

'_Well, we did come here to talk,'_ Kim thought, '_might as well get it over with.'_

"Okay… listen, Agni," Kim spoke, keeping her voice level, "if you really... _got_ what I do, then you would understand that it _does not_ matter to me if your mom's my worst enemy, or, like, _Satan_ or whatever. I _do not_ care, alright? Really. You need help, I'll help you. _Period_. That's just the way I am."

She paused to take a sip of her soda before continuing. "And let's say I took you back to your grandparents, right? Now, I get the feeling - and tell me if I'm wrong - that _you_ would just run off again. And, y'know, nothing would be solved, nothing would... Look, I just think it's better to take care of this _now_ instead of just, y'know, letting it keep happening. That doesn't really... I solve problems, alright? And I think, I honestly do, that I can solve this problem, _your_ problem."

This seemed to get the young girl's attention. She sat up and eyed Kim critically before narrowing her eyes. "What makes _you_ think you can do anything to help _me_? You don't know anything about me. There is absolutely, positively _nothing_ you can do. You can bank on that."

Kim smiled proudly. "You saw my site. It says it right there at the top of my homepage: 'I can do _anything._'"

Agni scoffed, but a slight tugging of the corner of her lips made it apparent that she was keeping herself from grinning. "Whatever. So… what do you wanna know?"

Kim shrugged, "Well, the heart of the problem, ah, _seems_ to be that _you_ don't want to go _home_, so I think we should probably start with, y'know, why that is?"

Agni's face suddenly contorted into a feral glare, but it wasn't directed at Kim. "Oh, _that_…"

'_I don't think I've ever even seen _Shego _look that mad. This girl has some _major _anger issues.'_

Agni looked up at Kim, her expression forced into one of neutrality. "Okay, but _don't_ freakin' _rush_ me or I'll stop right there."

Kim noticed the preteen was looking at up at her as if Agni were expecting some confirmation. She nodded and smiled to try to calm the girl down. "Okay, sure, that's fine. Just go at your own pace."

Seeing Kim acknowledge her request, Agni sighed and leaned back in her seat with her arms crossed and her eyes closed. Her expression was not one Kim ever expected to see on a twelve-year-old, or even an _eighteen_-year-old. "Um… 'Kay, I think I figured out where I should, like, start or whatever... Y'see, I _guess_ you could say my problems really _started_ with my mom and grandma before I was born. Uh, and..."

Kim's eyes widened but remembered her promise and stopped herself from saying anything. It was hard enough to get the girl talking in the first place; she didn't want to jinx the situation by opening her mouth.

Agni continued, her eyes still closed, "See, my mom and her parents never got along much, and I... _think_... mom and my grandparents fought a lot, 'specially after, um, I was born. And when mom and my uncles were in that comet accident, things got sorta complicated… The next two years were, like, really tough on them, y'know? 'Least, that's what I _heard_."

"Complicated how?" Kim asked, perhaps a little _too_ eagerly.

"Well, I mean, there were, like... There were problems. Like, Mom? She kept accidentally setting stuff on fire, Uncle Hego flipped a car into a building when he tried to open the door..." She smirked despite herself. "An' Uncle Mego, _he_ was almost _eaten_ by the neighbor's cat, that sort of stuff." Kim couldn't help but smile at the mental image.

Agni continued as though she hadn't noticed, and she probably hadn't. "Mom had this friend once, I don't know her name, but, well, she accidentally hurt her friend, like, _really_ bad just by, like, bumping into her. A few third-degree burns and skin grafts later and… Let's just say they ain't friends anymore, yeah?"

Kim nearly choked on her soda when she heard that, it made sense though. The "Go Glow" Shego had been fused with was _not_ a trivial issue. Kim remembered how long it had taken her just to get a handle on Hego's strength; she could only imagine what kind of damage the glow could do if it was out of control.

"Uncle Hego and the others wanted to, like, _do_ things with their powers; y'know, that hero crap you do." Agni shrugged dismissively, "Mom and Grandma weren't really thrilled 'bout it, but Grandpa and my uncles kinda pushed 'til they caved. Eventually my mom started working with 'em."

She smiled darkly, "An' that's when _I_ come into the picture."

Kim forgot all about the cooling meal laying untouched in front of her and listened intently at the story. This was the first time Kim could catch a glimpse of her rival's earlier life. If Kim was being honest, while she really _did_ want to help Agni, most of her questioning came out of sheer morbid curiosity. When would she get a better chance to learn about Shego than _this_?

Agni grinned humorlessly and looked up at Kim. "Things are kinda... _fuzzy_ in this part of the story."

Kim couldn't help but ask, "So who's--" She was cut off when she noticed the stern look the preteen was giving her. Agni looked Kim dead in the eyes and stated the next part very plainly.

"I dunno who my dad is an' I don't care, so do _not_ even ask. Nobody would tell me, nobody ever _did_ tell me, and I _totally_ stopped caring about _that_ oh-so-amazing fact _years_ ago, so _drop_ it, _capisce_?"

Kim nearly screamed in frustration. She'd been _so_ _close_ to hearing the answer and then hit a brick wall. Idly, she wondered if she could just ask Shego herself but quickly squelched that line of thinking. If the thief wouldn't tell her own daughter, than she _certainly_ wouldn't tell Kim.

Agni continued, "There was lotsa fighting after that. I dunno why myself, but I get the feeling that Gram wanted Mom to get rid of me early on. Mom refused no matter what, and even threatened to walk out on all of them. Eventually her parents kinda gave up. I was born after that."

Kim frowned deeply at that. Knowing that the people who took care of you didn't want you to be _alive_ in the first place was... Well, it was certainly enough to give any child a complex. '_I'm actually kind of surprised that Shego was so insistent; she never seemed the type to even _want _kids. 'Course, I guess I've only known her since whatever happened _happened_, so maybe that's why...'_

"When I was born, most of my family was sorta obligated to help out my mom, since, y'know, she was still in high school then. When I was around, oh... _two_ years old, I think, Mom finally started helping Hego and the others with that stupid Team Go crap. My grandparents watched me a lot after that. Between her school and the hero stuff I didn't see her much," Agni grinned wistfully, "but she always made time, so I never much cared."

'_Sounds really, well, _complicated… _Jeez, all that stuff swirling around her, people having to make time, and... Wow, it must've been stressful as hell. That'd give just about _anyone _a temper.'_

"Mom was a bit... _rough_ when it came to the hero stuff. She was sorta, like, excessive, I guess? 'Least that's what Uncle Hego says. I honestly think he's full of it, but that's just me. Mom would, like, really _mess up_ the crooks she was after. Like, _really_. Now, _I_ personally think thrashing some dumb-ass thugs half to death is just part of the job. They all got into a lot of fights over it, but Mom always said 'Well, is the guy gonna do it _again_?' That shut 'em up." Agni grinned.

'_This is starting to sound like another story I was told. I figured it would come to this eventually.'_

Suddenly, Agni's grin was replaced with a look of extreme concern. She furrowed her brow, and her eyes bulged. "When… when I was… um, around f-four… something… something _happened_ and…" Agni's tone all of a sudden became shaky and her words began to stutter and catch in her throat. "I don't r-really know what went down… but I… I _remember_..." Agni's expression hardened and she looked away, visibly biting her lower lip, her hands trembling slightly; she found herself unable to force the next words out. She stopped when she felt a soft and warm hand on her own; she looked up and saw Kim looking down at her, her expression colored with open concern.

"You don't need to talk about it if you don't want to. It's so not the drama."

Agni looked at the hand, then back up at the young woman who offered it with trepidation. She cleared her throat and pulled her own hand back.

"S'okay, I'm cool." She took a deep breath and settled herself. "I'll tell you the rest now." The pale preteen crossed her arms and gave Kim a steely look, as though proving her own resolve, before leaning back into her seat. Kim looked at the girl thoughtfully for a moment, then sat back down. She was still digesting what she'd just heard.

'_Jeez, a lot obviously happened eight years ago... I think I might look into this myself. If it was enough to get Shego to leave her daughter with people they _both _seem to despise, then there has to be _something _to find.' _Kim made a mental note to ask Wade to look into it later. She was about to ask Agni to continue, but a sudden and familiar voice from behind stopped her in her tracks.

"Hey, KP," said a familiar voice beside Kim. Kim's breath caught in her throat, and she quickly turned to her ex. Ron stood beside the table, smiling lightly and shifting his weight from foot to foot. He held a full tray piled high with a virtual mountain of greasy, fried, and dripping faux-Mexican cuisine. With barely a glance, Kim could see that that his usually gregarious relaxed smile had been replaced by a slightly thin-lipped forced counterpart that made her stomach tighten.

'_He looks_ _agitated… Wade probably told him about my mission yesterday, AND I FORGOT TO CALL HIM BACK! _DAMMIT_! C'mon _c'mon_, say _something_, what is with you today, Possible? This is _Ron_! Your _best friend_! You've been inseparable since Pre-K! Why is this so weird?'_

"H-Hey there, Ron, how's it... going... for... you...?" _Well, that's a start, anyway… _Out of the corner of her eye, Kim could see Agni regarding Ron with quiet but crystal-clear hostility, likely due to his interruption of her very fascinating story. Part of Kim was dejected at having the pale girl's tale cut short, but she knew this was more important. If all the other stuff she wanted to talk about drowned in a sea of awkwardness, she at least needed to apologize for their communicative snafu the day before.

"I'm… uh, cool, Kim. Everything's… pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty... pretty good. Eh-heh... heh..." he said, idly sliding his tray onto the tabletop and rubbing the hairs along the back of his neck.

"Glad to hear that... what you said... I mean... It's good... that... _you_ are doing... _good_..." Kim responded more towards his food tray than at him, not that Ron noticed.

Ron turned his gaze towards Kim's guest and raised his eyebrow slightly at the sight. The last person he expected to see sitting with Kim was a young, dark-haired, green-skinned middle-schooler. Something about the small green girl made warning klaxons go off in his head, but he couldn't figure out what. This was very likely because his greater thought processes were being used to simultaneously deal with both his growing hunger, and the helter-skelter mess of emotions that his ex-girlfriend's mere presence triggered. Eventually, the blond simply rationalized that it was due to the fact that the mysterious girl was glaring up at him in indignation.

"So, KP…" Ron asked cautiously, turning towards the cheerleader. "Who's..." He frowned, then leaned in and whispered in Kim's ear, pointing at Agni. "Who's the girl, and why does she want to hurt me very badly? Is she a friend of yours?"

Unfortunately, Ron had never mastered the art of whispering. "_Friend_?" Agni asked in annoyance. She was about to correct the blond boy's error but Kim quickly cut her off.

"Um… Ron, this is, um, Agni. She's… uh…" '_I don't want to lie to him, but I promised Shego I wouldn't tell anyone! Wow, I'm can't believe lying to Ron for _Shego'_s sake. Total Twilight Zone sitch...' _Kim thought as she looked around, trying to think of a quick cover story. She was a lousy liar, after all; the Centurion Project incident had proved that quite conclusively. Thinking fast, Kim decided to go for the easiest solution she could think of on such short notice.

"I'm babysitting her for a… for a person. A _friend_. A friend-person. Who I know. But you don't. Yes." Kim finally managed to say. The younger girl suddenly blanched at the notion of being baby-sat by the woman she loathed, but chose to keep her objection to herself when Kim flashed her an overly stern glance.

"O…K… I getcha," Ron said nodding, satisfied with that rejoinder.

'_Maybe the girl just had some freak hair-dye accident, Drakken is blue, after all, and Shego is… green… too._ _Wow… that's _eerie_.'_ He looked over at the green twelve-year-old and grinned nervously. "Hey Aggy, I'm Ron," he said, managing to gin up his trademark warm and somewhat vapid smile.

A small, pink, wrinkly creature popped its head out from Ron's breast pocket and waved. "Heya!" said Rufus in his usual high squeak of a voice. Ron looked down at his bald companion. "Oh yeah, and this is Rufus." Agni's right eye twitched, both because he got her name wrong and the fact that his pet was, in her opinion, one of the creepier things she'd seen in _ever_.

The erstwhile sidekick quickly slid into the same side of the booth as Agni so as to be facing Kim. Agni sneered at the action and scooted over until there was a good foot and a half between them. The pale girl had limited experience dealing with the male sex outside of her interaction with her grandfather and uncles, but that didn't mean she couldn't tell a flake when she saw one. Well, there was that, and the fact that the small, wrinkly... _thing_ crawling out of his pocket was creepy as hell, especially when it favored her with a look of inquiry.

Kim looked down at her fingernails nervously, stealing furtive glances at Ron and doing her best to gather her thoughts. First, she'd need to apologize for yesterday, that much was clear. She'd left him high and dry, no question. Then she forgot to call him back, making her look even worse in his eyes. She would _have_ to explain that. But the problem was that doing so would mean telling him _why_ she didn't bring him along in the first place.

'_Okay, on the one hand, I could just lie again but I hate hate _HATE _lying to Ron about this. Wasn't this what _I _wanted to talk about in the first place? _I _wanted to deal with this... _this _so we could get on with our freaking _lives _and be BFFs and stuff again, like we're supposed to be! But I can't _do _that with Agni here! DAMMIT! Maybe I should have left her at the house? No, I bet she'd have disappeared the second I took my eyes off her! Ugh, whatever! This isn't getting me anywhere, I have to apologize, and I'll just wing it from there.'_

While Kim sat mustering her courage, Ron gazed intently at his childhood companion across the table. He'd finally, thankfully dropped his melancholic smile and was now simply _checking out_ his ex - taking in her shining red hair, soft peach skin, clear olive eyes… After what seemed a _geological age_, he sighed and turned his attention to his food. Scooping a gigantic glob of cheese and salsa onto his tortilla chip, he began reducing the size of the grease mountain on his tray at a steady but unnatural pace. His diminutive pet was more than happy to lend a paw in that endeavor.

Kim sighed herself, turning her attention back to her own meal. Slowly and methodically, she began biting away at her encherito; she couldn't taste the fried tortilla-wrap at all, just her own guilt. Occasionally Ron or Kim would glance at each other and try to say something, before giving up and going back to their meal. Their gazes never once met. Which they were actually thankful for; eye contact would have prompted a conversation neither was willing to engage in - not yet, at least. This awkward behavior was by no means overlooked by the girl in the corner of the booth, not by a long shot.

Agni eyed the two teenagers darkly. Something was going on beneath all this forced civility and she wanted positively _no_ part of it. She could virtually feel the pressure in the air above them, twisting and turning and building. She knew all about tension: her home life was a daily crash-course in the feeling, so this was old hat for her.

'_What the hell does some Pixie Scout goody-two-shoes have to be so nervous about? Stupid bitch should just sit back and smile at her happy little life.' _She turned her attention to the boy she'd internally labeled as 'The Flake,' having forgotten his name immediately after he'd said it. Why the hell _should_ she even remember his name, anyway? He couldn't even get 'Agni' right. '_What a doofus… And _he's _being all weird too. It's like they're… nah, no way in hell. Even Little Miss Muffet here has higher standards than _that_.'_

Agni turned her interest over to Rufus who immediately perked up and returned the gaze. Both earlier had found that they were less than smitten with one another. Agni _hated_ rats and other rodents. Living in the city had imprinted their status as diseases on paws firmly upon her consciousness, and this particular rodent was hairless, wrinkly, _and_ a gross shade of pink. She had to fight back the urge to wrap the in a napkin and throw it in the garbage like the oversized pinkish booger it resembled. "Booger" wasn't the _most_ accurate descriptor Agni could've applied to the animal, but the choice that could be strictly considered the most apt was, frankly, too horrible to even contemplate.

Rufus felt troubled around the pale green girl because she smelt faintly of ozone and something _else_, a very familiar scent that made the little _Heterocephalus glaber_ nervous as all hell. Both silently decided it was better to pretend the other wasn't there.

Snapping out of her Ron-induced reverie, Kim regarded her current responsibility. '_I really got only half the story out of Agni, and it's going to be hell to manage to get her to tell me the rest.' _

She favored the pale girl with a look. Currently, the girl in question was backed up against the window, occasionally glancing at Rufus with morbid curiosity, while apparently trying to keep her distance. Rufus, ironically, was doing the same; something about the girl appeared to make the rodent very uncomfortable. Kim consciously kept from snickering at the sight.

Ron, having eaten a good majority of the greasy mess on his tray, looked at the small girl sitting silently beside him. Part of him was _sure_ he had met her before, but he couldn't for the life of him remember where or how.

'_Y'know_,' he thought, '_she really _does _look sort of like…'_ He shut off that train of thought instantly. Thinking about that green psycho within the sacred walls of the Bueno Nacho was definite bad karma; it was bad enough that his other issues were keeping him from focusing on Kim and his mound of snackage.

Ron gave Agni another look and finally noticed that she hadn't eaten anything. Believing himself a gentleman, he decided to offer up the third naco on his tray.

Agni looked down at the offered mexi-food and was about to flat out refuse the grease-trap before pausing to regard it critically. It looked like some kind of soft-shelled taco, but soggy, cheese-soaked tortilla chips were poking out of it at every angle. Her eye twitched involuntarily and she looked back up at the blond.

"...What the hell is _that_?"

Ron's expression scrunched up slightly as he did his best to go over the girl's bizarre, impossible question. Did she ask what a naco was? How could she not know what a naco was? Was she an alien? Living under a rock for the last two years? How was that even possible? Before he could ask, Kim decided to defuse the inevitable argument before it could start.

"Um… she's from Go City, Ron. Remember how the Grande Bueno Nacho doesn't carry nacos?"

"I can see why..." Agni mumbled under her breath.

Ron's eyes widened in revulsion and he turned back to the girl looking at her like he'd just been told she had leukemia. "Wow… That's… that is just _sick_ and _wrong_ that _any_ kid would be deprived of the world-famous naco!" He pushed his tray over to her side selflessly. "Here, take it. Please, don't thank me. I'm just doing my snackage duty."

Agni considered the fried heart-attack-on-a-plate apprehensively before shoving the tray back over to a very confused Ron. Rufus took this golden opportunity to pounce on said naco and violently tear into it like a tiny pink barbarian. She regarded the blond before stating flippantly; "I ain't s'posed to talk to strangers. And I _especially_ ain't s'posed to take food from 'em." Mentally the twelve-year-old added: _And you're about as strange as they come, Rob._

Hearing this, Kim began to choke on her soda. Ron much to the cheerleader's surprise nodded knowingly. "Yeah, yeah, my mom used to say that kind of stuff to _me_." He thought for a moment and his brow furrowed. "Actually, she _still_ does…"

Kim slumped in her seat, running her fingers through her light auburn hair. '_I'll say this; the atmosphere isn't anywhere_ near _as thick as it was before, I'll give Agni credit for _that_. Now, how about you actually accomplish your freaking objective, Kim? Apologize to Ron, and tell him that you'd like to discuss something important with him and, um… Oh come_ ON_! You've fought giant death-robots, for goodness sake! This should be a breeze! _GARGH… _Kim Possible, the girl who can do anything… _except _keep a relationship going for more than two months… even _if _it was supposed to be such a guaranteed sure thing, and was a _gigantic _freakin' _flop _just like all the others…_ OKAY! _We're gonna do this in three… two… one!'_

"Ron?"

"Kim?" Ron said, almost in unison with Kim. He stopped and smirked, shaking his head. "Um… you can… uh, go first, KP."

Kim smiled and shook her head. "No, no, you can go ahead, Ron."

"Uh, no, it's okay. You start."

"Ron, it's fine, just go ahead."

"I insist, KP. Really."

"But Ron-"

"Son of a freaking bastard _hell_!" Agni finally snapped, standing up in her seat and pointing accusingly at Kim. "Start talking or _shut the hell up_! I can't _stand_ this lameass teen angst another _second_! Gah!" She grumbled obscenities under her breath as she sat back down, yanked her spooled-up MP3 player out of her pocket, and shoved both earbuds into place. She cranked the volume up all the way. Then she turned her back to both currently dumbstruck teenagers, imagining she were alone. Rufus ignored all of this, sneakily snatching cheese-covered tortilla chips from Ron's tray with impressive vigor.

Ron blinked and exchanged a cautionary glance with Kim and Rufus. "Uh… cute kid, KP. Hope her mom is paying you for the psychological fallout on top of your usual rate."

Kim sighed and smirked, the previous tension momentarily forgotten by Agni's enraged outburst. '_Who would have thought, Agni's bad attitude actually cleared my head some. Whatever works…'_

She looked up into Ron's light brown eyes, internally steeling herself for whatever might occur. '_It's now or never, Possible.'_

"Ron, I… I just wanted…" She took a deep breath, "I wanted to say I'm really totally sorry for bailing on you yesterday I mean I know you probably want to know why and why I didn't call you back and those are really fair questions really I would totally get if you are angry and I am so sorry."

Ron's right eyebrow was cocked slightly as he slowly went over everything she'd just said in his head at a decelerated pace. After a second, he nodded giving Kim a far more genuine smile than the one she'd weathered earlier. "It's cool, KP. I get that things are a bit… uh… y'know…"

Kim smiled feeling just slightly relieved and nodded accepting the easy out. "Yeah, I know. Again, I'm really sorry. But things will be back to normal again soon, I'm sure."

Ron smirked and reached for another enchirito, his next words completely dropping Kim's mood like a ton of bricks.

"Yeah, let's just forget it ever happened," Ron said as he took a big bite out of his enchirito.

Kim's eyes widened but Ron wasn't looking up to notice. '_Just forget it ever happened? Is that _really _what you want? Ron said that back then too. "Let's just put it behind us, let's just forget about it..." Why is he so set on acting like... like _we _never happened? Was it really _that bad_?'_ She tightened her fists underneath the table and lowered her head. '_I mean, is that it? I was really_ that _bad a girlfriend, then? Or is it something else? What _was _it, Ron?'_

She glanced towards the window, or was about to when her eyes locked on Agni's. The girl was looking over at her - not quite in a concerned fashion, but with a glimmer of interest. Clearly the little urbanite was beginning to understand something was amiss in the redhead's life, although what that meant to the kid was lost on Kim. She silently wished Ron were as perceptive. In her reverie, Kim nearly missed the blond stand up and deposit his tray onto the shelf above the garbage can. She looked up at him as he walked back to the table, barely suppressing her dissatisfaction.

"What I was going to ask you about before was; Rufus and I are gonna go see Splatter Mall 3: The Shoppening, later. Do, uh… D'you wanna come? I have it on good authority that blood-soaked fun will be had by all," he added, a small smile playing across his face.

Kim forced herself to smile back and shook her head; her memories of that particular series' first two installments were... not fond (letting Ron be in charge of what movies to rent was a mistake not likely to be repeated), so she was somewhat quick to decline. Had Agni been paying attention she might have actually pushed to join him, as horror and action movies were really all that she would watch.

'_Ron, I understand that you're just trying to force yourself to move on, and maybe you have the right idea. Maybe dwelling on this _is _only causing us pain. But for now, I'm sorry but I guess I just… I need some time for myself. _To _myself. Maybe that's what we both need. Or maybe not... Ugh! Why can't this stupid relationship... _junk _just be _simple_? Why can't I just say what I mean? Why do I have to keep asking _myself _these questions instead of asking Ron? Is there something wrong with me? With _him_? Why can't we talk like we used to? I'm so freakin' confused...'_

The two old friends, and the surly girl, solemnly walked out to the front of the restaurant and prepared to part ways. Ron cast Kim a forlorn look. "Are you sure you don't wanna come? I'll spot for the popcorn if you do."

Kim smiled softly and shook her head. "No, I've… still got Agni to take care of." She winced as a tiny elbow hit her in the side. "But…" She steadied herself and forced herself to finish the sentence. "But I'm sure Monique would love to join you."

Ron looked thoughtful. "…Monique, huh? Yeah... Yeah, I guess I'll give her a ring… Okay, KP, the movie's at eight if you decide to get on the bandwagon."

Kim nodded, her fingernails digging into her palms behind her back. "Thanks, Ron. Have a good time."

Both parties parted ways a moment later. As Ron walked away, Agni stuck her tongue out in his direction, and then blinked when Rufus scurried onto Ron's shoulder and returned the rude gesture. _What the hell…_

Kim sighed and started heading back in the direction of her home with Agni following closely behind. '_I wonder, who's being the unreasonable one here? Is it Ron... or is it _me_? Maybe both of us? God, when did life get so _hard_? Maybe Ron will be happier spending some time with a girl he _isn't _on pins and needles around.' _She sighed and looked over at the pale green girl walking at her side. '_For now, I have other priorities to deal with.'_

Now in private Kim turned to give the girl a stern look. "What was with that 'I don't talk to strangers' thing back there?" Kim finally asked with undisguised annoyance.

The young girl shrugged with indifference. "I just didn't want to deal with him. He's weird, and his pet looks like it was dipped in toxic waste. _Twice_." She shuddered at the memory of the peculiar creature.

Kim shrugged. "Rufus is a naked mole rat, they're supposed to look that way."

"Tch, whatever. I'm just glad we got the hell outta that dump. You two were bein' _total_ emos back there. Was like you were _tryin'_ to make me puke."

Kim rubbed the bridge of her nose as they walked; "Listen, Ron and I--"

"Ain't any of my business," Agni said cutting Kim off sharply, "Drop it, I don't need to know an' I don't care. Prob'ly make me _gag_ anyway..."

'_Is she mad that she and I didn't get a chance to finish our talk? Or is something else bothering her? It's useless to try to figure Agni out most of the time, so no reason to try now…' _She glanced at the pale girl. Agni was walking in her usual pose, her head angled towards the street and her hands in her pockets. Kim wondered if she ever walked in to anything since she was never watching where she was going. It reminded her of when the girl crashed into her when she was trying to run off. Kim smirked at the memory.

Agni looked up at the redhead in annoyance. "The hell's so funny? You see somethin' that _ain't_ me?"

Kim smirked, "I'm just remembering when you tried to get away from me this morning."

This caused the younger girl to deeply scowl. "Ah, you were lucky is all. That's the only reason you got me."

"Luck had nothing to do with it." Kim added smugly, but noticed that Agni was gritting her teeth and trying to hide her blush of indignity. The teen did internally acknowledge that the young girl was very good for her age, probably all traits she adopted from her mother's side, just like that Glow power. "Frankly, you're easy to spot."

Agni's scowl grew positively lethal. "Am _not_! An' shut up!"

Kim just smirked.

They walked in silence for a few minutes, then Kim spoke up. "...Where'd you learn to fight like that, anyway? Did your grandparents sign you up for some martial arts classes or something?" Anne had done just that for Kim when the girl was a couple of years younger than Agni. Since then, she'd mostly just learned new skills as she went along. That adaptivity had aided her in her numerous battles. Shego, of course, had been a major participant in many of those battles.

Agni snickered humorlessly. "As _if_! They never let me do cool stuff like that, something about not letting me end up like 'that embarrassment.'" The last two words were portentously intoned, a little-girl rendition of a much deeper voice; Agni was obviously trying to imitate an authority figure in her life. Kim guessed she was imitating her grandfather. She would have been surprised to learn that the girl was actually mocking her grand_mother_.

'_I can't _believe _they call Shego that in front of her _daughter_! I'm sure Shego was hard to raise, but that's just…'_

"So, if not in classes, then where?" Kim finally asked. Agni shrugged as she tended to do.

"Here and there, mostly junk I picked up from martial arts flicks." She furrowed her brow. "And I _do_ get into plenty of fights at school. That helps."

Kim couldn't really imagine that many fights happening in a prestigious all-girls school like the Go Academy, however, her instincts said Agni wasn't lying to her. Kim knew first-hand that girls had the potential to be downright ruthless, Bonnie being the primary example in her own life; nevertheless, none of them ever attacked Kim or tried to intimidate her. On the other hand, everyone at _her_ school knew that she could basically _break_ any idiot mushbrained enough to try something, and _without_ breaking a sweat. Not that she'd be _vicious_ about it, but any attackers would _not_ try to attack her again, nor would they necessarily be able to. Her real secret, however, was in not projecting an aura of anger; she simply _knew_ she could win a fight, so she knew she didn't have anything to prove or fear. Everything about her already said "I win."

She doubted Agni carried herself with the same self-assurance.

"Fights with, like, bullies?"

Agni scoffed. "Yeah, I guess you could call 'em that." She walked ahead so that she was in front of Kim instead of the other way around. "But they're actually in the majority, so I think technically _I'm_ the bully."

Kim frowned. "What do you mean, _you're_ the bully?"

She cast Kim a glance like she was a simpleton. "Think about it, dummy. They're a buncha rich pampered debbies, an' I'm just some brat who happens to go there 'cause my mom paid for me. It's like throwing bacon to a pack of Dobermans. Who do you think the teachers are gonna believe when it comes down to it, Cassandra whose daddy donated a new teacher's lounge, or me, the pasty city 'goth' girl with a terminal case of bitch and a temper?" She laughed humorlessly. "Like I said, _I'm_ the bully."

'_Wow, a whole school full of Bonnie Rockwallers. _Kim shuddered down to her very core. _I still have nightmares about that!' _It reminded her of a while back when Drakken went clone-happy and made a small army of rabid Bonnie-copies. '_There are just some things _worth _forgetting.'_ The redhead almost missed the next words to leave Agni's mouth.

"The _really_ funny part is that those girls have absolutely no idea how close I've come to char-broiling them in their own egos. A temper? Shit, this is me with _self-control_." Her left hand moved from her pocket and lit up with swirling green light as she made a fist. If Kim were closer she would have seen the girl smiling coldly.

At hearing the pale girl's statement, Kim bit her lip as she thought of something troubling that she had never seriously considered until then. Shego and Agni both had the same frightening power, but there was one major difference between them. Despite the fact that Shego had the strength and power to rip a person in half and burn them into a carbon stain, she also had the martial discipline and maturity to know when to hold back. Agni did not.

If Kim had it right, the girl was mostly ignored back home, under enough stress to make her run off across three states, and about to go through puberty. And she could shoot green death out of her hands. It was worse than a kid going to school with a loaded gun, because what could you do, chop off her hands? If this kid had just one bad day, there was a decent chance she'd end up doing something she'd regret...

"What up, yo? As my generation apparently says."

The young voice brought Kim back to reality. She looked up only to see Agni favor her with a look of mild concern. "You were looking at me kinda… funny, an' you got real quiet. What's the deal? You come to Jesus?"

"No, I..."

Kim glanced up and saw that her house was only ten feet away. A somewhat crazy idea struck her. '_Maybe… no, it's stupid… but…' _Despite her mental debate, her mouth began to form words almost against her will.

"Ah, hey, Agni...? You said you thought martial arts lessons would be, um, cool, right?" Kim chose her words carefully.

Agni looked over at Kim confused. "Yeah, so?"

"Well..." Kim looked around for a moment before continuing. '_I might as well say it... How do I get myself into things like this?'_ "How would you like it if I taught you some moves?"

Agni's face lit up briefly. "Seriously!?" Then she frowned again and regarded the redhead with her usual skepticism. "...Why?"

'_Because I'm worried you might hurt someone if you don't discipline yourself_,' thought Kim. She knew that wouldn't fly with the girl, though, so she fell back on her secondary reasoning. "Well, we have plenty of time to waste right now, and you seem interested, so why not?"

Agni looked on for a moment and then shrugged to keep up her mask of general indifference. "Sure. I mean, if _you_ want to." In her mind, however, "We Are The Champions" was playing. '_Finally, something _good _comes out of being grilled by this ditz for over two hours! I'll learn to beat down on her just like Mom does! '_

Shego's image popped into her head suddenly, and her mood soured. '_This would be so great if it were Mom and not Kim. I mean, what's the deal? Does she just not want me, is that it?' _Even as she thought that, Agni quickly shook her head. '_No, listen to yourself whine like that, she _does _want you, it's just that there's crap in the way. She wouldn't write me if she didn't care.'_ Agni quickly shrugged off those self-sabotaging feelings and looked over at the redhead in front of her with determination.

"So...?"

"Yeah, follow me." Kim led Agni to the backyard. The space was wide, and the grass would provide a somewhat soft area for them to tumble around in. When they got there, Kim bent over and stretched for a minute before looking up. She was surprised to see Agni imitating her actions in deep concentration. Kim barely covered up a snicker.

"Alright, here's how we'll do this. You come at me like you did this morning and then we'll go from thAH!" She was cut off in mid-sentence when a glowing claw slashed at her face with startling swiftness. Grabbing the wrist, Kim instinctively flipped the small body over her head and twisted the offending limb behind the pale girl's back, all the while being careful not to harm her. Slightly flustered by the surprise attack, Kim looked down at the struggling girl pinned to the grass and smirked. "Okay, some ground rules. Well, just one, really: don't start until I say 'go.'"

Agni let out a feral growl. "You said to come at you like before, right? I didn't give you a warning last time either!"

Kim laughed despite herself. "Alright, I guess not. But let's be a bit more civil next time, 'kay?" She let go and stood up. Agni quickly righted herself and looked at the redhead with her eyes full of fire.

Agni crossed her arms and tapped her foot, trying to look as impatient as possible. "Well…?"

'_Hyper little brat, isn't she?' _Kim grinned, "Aaaaaand... _go_!"

Suddenly twin spheres of roiling green light whizzed past her head, forcing the redhead to duck and then go into a full roll as similar blasts (now accompanied by claws) struck after her relentlessly. Rather than subdue the girl, Kim simply danced between and around the fierce strikes with an almost unnatural ease, ducking and weaving with the grace of, well, a cheerleader. She somersaulted left to avoid a kick directed at her temple, then backflipped past the girl's smoldering right hand. Charred blades of grass rained down like snow, but Kim seemed to know how to make even those slide off of her.

"Try not to swing so wide, it leaves you totally open." She sidestepped a kick. "Never kick from your knee. Slows you down, throws you off-balance."

"Aagh, you know-it-all _loser_!"

"Hey, it's not my fault you're getting angry instead of thinking."

"GrrAAGH!"

This went on for well over an hour. Kim would outmaneuver the smaller girl and drop helpful advice along the way. This seemed to frustrate Agni even further, mostly due to the fact that she hadn't landed a single strike on the innocently smiling hero even once. This was making it extremely hard to pretend that Kim was just a vapid ditz. That _didn't_, however, mean that she wasn't taking Kim's advice seriously while she heard it.

Kim, on the other hand, was actually amazed that the girl was doing as well as she was. Agni seemed to be improving in mid-combat. She only needed to be told something once before she never repeated the same mistake. To make matters worse, Agni had super-human endurance on her side, not to mention all-around tenacity, making her attacks quick and relentless.

'_One thing's for sure, she certainly takes this really seriously. I wonder why? Seems a bit intense for a girl just looking for a hobby...' _Kim was about to leap back as a burning claw rushed towards her, but her movements were suddenly halted by something hard behind her. Out of the corner of her eye, Kim saw it was the oak tree growing along the perimeter of her backyard.

Agni grinned when she saw her target was pinned and wasted no time rushing forward, her right hand's fingers pointed straight out in a piercing formation. However, the girl's mental victory did not transfer into a real one; Kim completely disappeared from view, flipping over the pale green girl and landing right behind her. _Grr, dammit!_

Much to the twelve-year-old's chagrin, her accumulated momentum forced her straight into the tree trunk. Her incandescent hand sank wrist-deep into the oak, and her forehead smacked hard into the rough bark.

"Owww..." Agni groaned.

Kim covered her mouth to keep from laughing, but the sight was too much for her. The hero laughed until she was red in the face. She literally fell over laughing when she noticed Agni was having some trouble pulling her hand free of its wooden prison.

"That's right, laugh it up! Not like I'm _stuck in a friggin' tree_!" The girl growled, propping both of her feet against the thick tree and pulling. "Come... loose! Son of a..." After a few more seconds of struggle, she pulled as hard as she could and lit her trapped hand to burn it free. Which sent her flying backwards and hard onto the grass, staining Kim's sweater. Agni did her best to look as though Kim's laughter fell on deaf ears, but her deep mossy blush made that tricky. She was surprised when she felt a warm hand rest on her shoulder.

"You've got a lot of spirit, Agni," Kim said brightly. "And you're really good, too. But I have an important piece of advice for you." Her tone grew serious. "Think. Don't just fling yourself at people and hope anger and instinct will help you. Think about what you're doing. Plan your moves. Lay off the aggressive strikes, 'cause you only need a few. Defense and evasion are way more powerful than one or two good hits. And most of all, you need to stop letting your anger control you. You could really hurt someone if you're not careful."

Agni frowned. "Isn't that the point?"

Kim sighed and crossed her arms. "No, the point is to defend yourself. And on top of that, even _if_ hurting the other person was 'the point,' even your mom never kills anyone. She knows better."

Agni scoffed and shook her head. "You don't know much about my mom, do ya?" It was more of a statement than a question.

Kim furrowed her brow and spoke, sounding more annoyed than she intended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know how my Mom used to do the hero thing, right? Why do you think she left?"

Kim frowned and recalled the story Hego told her. "Well, your uncle told me she liked being evil more than fighting evil." Her voice sounded somewhat uncertain, however. That tale was much easier to swallow back when Agni wasn't in the picture.

The green girl 'tsked' and said in annoyance, "Uncle Hego's a total idiot who thinks up a lotta useless garbage. Yeah, she likes bein' a thief more, sure. But that's not the _main_ reason."

Kim blinked in confusion. "Then… why?"

Agni smirked somberly. "'Cause she finally up and killed someone."

Chapter 6: End

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**Author's Notes: This is easily the most reconstructed chapter so far. And** **again, much MUCH thanks to my beta Ffordesoon, and Eoraptor who put this whole project on hold with a comment so I'd have to rewrite half of it. XD And as always, PLEASE review.**


	7. The Reluctant Lioness

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 7: The Reluctant Lioness**

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Shego sat back, staring across the street where Kim and Agni went back and forth sparring in the backyard of the Possible residence. Calling what went on sparring was being charitable; it was more Agni trying to thrash Kim, and Kim dancing around her with little effort. It was quite a sight, considering her hated rival and her beloved daughter wouldn't even be in the same room as one another in an ideal situation, let alone spar together.

Shego had driven over to the Possible household a half hour earlier, having finally gotten up the nerve to take her wayward daughter back to Go City. However, when she finally arrived, a quick glance around had revealed to the green thief that Kim and Agni had left. She decided to use her free time by waiting in her car and rehearsing what she intended to say to Kim and Agni when they returned. Her plan basically involved being stern with the twelve-year-old, and trying to discourage any future attempts at egress. Shego doubted that any of it was going to sink in; Agni was as bullheaded as her mother, in fact probably more so.

'_Well, Mom is stubborn too, so I guess I can just blame genetics for that lousy trait.'_

After roughly ten minutes of waiting, planning and preparing, Shego saw Kim and Agni approaching from down the street. They seemed to be conversing with one another about who-knew-what. When she focused on the heroine's face, a mild frown pulled at her dark lips.

Having dealt with Kim for a couple of years now, Shego had developed an instinctive insight into the moods of her unusual opponent, much to her own dismay, and it was painfully obvious that something was troubling the young redhead. Kim's expression proved effective in distracting Shego from approaching the two as she had originally intended.

She'd been surprised when she saw them make their way towards the backyard rather then walk through the front door. Soon they were out of the green thief's range of vision entirely. Remembering her original intentions, Shego left her vehicle parked along the far curb and snuck around the house to see what the two were doing. As she stealthily approached, Shego heard the sounds of heavy breathing, shouting, and hurried footfalls; the telltale noises associated with a scuffle. She quickly peaked around the corner to reaffirm her suspicions.

'_Well I'll be…'_

The two were fighting… in a sense. Agni was frantically running around and jumping at Kim with her claws outstretched and her powers released to their low output. The thief's daughter was throwing sudden energy bolts, slashes and kicks at the smiling heroine who was dodging the amateur attacks with graceful disregard. Every now and then Kim would speak out a word of encouragement or advice, which Agni would quickly, albeit begrudgingly employ immediately thereafter.

Shego was honestly impressed with the little firecracker. She knew from Agni's letters that she got into fights at school often, much to Shego's dismay, not because she didn't want her daughter to fight, she was completely fine with that. She just hated the reason that the girl had to. But she never knew that the Agni was as skilled at it as she currently displayed. Her sense of balance was impeccable as she landed on her feet from an aerial kick, or slash, and she corrected her own errors, even when Kim didn't say anything.

'_Definite natural talent there, but that's obvious. She is _my_ kid after all.' _Shego thought smugly. At the same time though, she felt a stinging pang of jealousy. Watching Kim interact with Agni like that, a avenue she herself had already barred, was a bit much for her to bear.

Suddenly Kim found herself hemmed in between the tree in her backyard, and the little green firebomb rushing headlong towards her. She saw Agni grin, thinking she had her victory all but assured. Shego sighed and shook her head.

'_You're _way_ too impulsive, Kiddo.'_

As expected, Kim merely vaulted clear over the girl, which resulted in Agni smashing headfirst into the very tree she had counted on as her trump card. Shego winced, but then covered her mouth to suppress a smirk at seeing the young girl struggle to free her hand, before crashing into the grass. Kim, for her part, didn't even try to hide her amusement, and laughing openly. Shego found she couldn't fault the redhead. She did frown though when she saw Kim lay her hand on Agni's shoulder so familiarly. It made that awful little seed of jealousy in her chest grow. The thief was now more than close enough to hear their conversation with crystal clarity.

"You've got a lot of spirit, Agni," Shego heard Kim say in her usual chipper voice. "And you're really good, too. But, here's a piece of advice for you…"

The redhead's tone became serious, "Think. Don't just fling yourself at people and hope anger and instinct will help you. Think about what you're doing. Plan your moves. Lay off the aggressive strikes, 'cause you only need a few. Defense and evasion are way more powerful than one or two good hits. And most of all, you need to stop letting your anger control you. You could really hurt someone if you're not careful."

"Isn't that the point?"

Shego had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing again.

Kim sighed and crossed her arms. "No, the point is to defend yourself. And on top of that, even if hurting the other person was 'the point,' your mom never kills anyone. She knows better."

Shego winced at Kim's words. '_If only you knew what you were saying Pumpkin…'_

"You don't know much 'bout my mom, do you?" Agni scoffed and shook her head.

The thief's emerald eyes shot wide open at hearing her daughters implicating tone. '_She couldn't mean-'_

Kim furrowed her brow and spoke out more annoyed than she intended. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know how my Mom used to do the hero thing, right? Why do you think she left?"

Kim frowned, her voice sounding unsure, but Shego was still too shocked to hear it, "Your uncle told me she liked being evil more than fighting evil."

"Uncle Hego is an idiot who thinks up a lot of junk. Yeah, she likes being a thief more, to be sure. But that ain't the reason."

Kim blinked in confusion. "Then… why?"

'_They didn't…'_

Agni smirked humorlessly. "'Cause she finally up and killed someone."

'_They told her!?'_

Shego leaned against the house, just out of sight, fuming with awful rage and barely keeping her power suppressed. She could feel its surging intensity just begging to be released through her skin. Internally, she raged.

'_Who told her? Who the __**fuck**__ told her!? I thought they knew better! I should have known they'd spill that. Was it Hego!?' _She rolled that possibility over in her head before disregarding it outright.

'_No he's in denial that it even happened. Mego knows not to piss me off, so I doubt it was him. The Wegos? They'd never cross that line.'_ Shego narrowed her eyes dangerously. She knew _exactly_ who'd told Agni.

'_Mom you stupid __**bitch**__! How long ago did you tell her? You promised me you wouldn't, goddammit!' _

Shego slid down to the grass and sat there fuming, wondering how long Agni had been aware of what she had done. She wondered what the girl thought of it. What was it like to live with the knowledge that your parent was a killer?

Shego grit her teeth, '_what a stupid question to ask yourself…and on top of that…'_

…now Kim knew too. Shego certainly didn't look forward to approaching them now. All of her mental planning and preparation had slipped down the proverbial sewer. She had no idea what she would say to them now, or how Kim would react to seeing her.

For some reason, the idea that Kim might look down at her after hearing about what she had done troubled Shego greatly. It was a strange unsettling feeling that the green thief was completely unaccustomed to. Her black lips pulled down at the corners when she considered the notion.

'_Y'know what's ironic?' _Shego thought to herself darkly,_ 'How far off the mark Hego and Agni are…' _

---Go City: Eight Years Ago---

When consciousness returned to Shego, the first thing that came to her jumbled and confused mind was a single all encompassing sensation; _pain_. Her muscles hurt terribly; they ached as though she had been beaten with lead pipes for well over an hour. Her lungs burned from overexertion, which was a feat in itself considering her supernatural fortitude. She was taking deep gulping breaths, both to re-oxygenate her system and also to calm her frazzled nerves. Worst of all though was her right hand. It felt as though someone had driven steel spikes into the meat of her palm.

The tingle that usually ran up her arms whenever she used her powers was now a steady throbbing pulse, like a heartbeat. It was an uncomfortable feeling that always accompanied using her full output, something she had only done three times in her entire life.

Her physical discomfort aside, she felt a deeper, far more intrusive pain from deep within her chest. Her heart felt as though someone had wrenched it from her ribcage and showed it to her purely out of spite. Shego felt a desperate ache from within, a sadness and pain that was foreign and new to her. The worst part was, at that moment, she couldn't even remember _why_.

She heard the cool rain continue to fall over her form, evaporating away immediately from the infernal heat of her powers. In the background, the heavy crash of thunder rumbled and shook across the cityscape. Shego quickly became aware of a dead weight coming from the direction of her right hand where the pain was centered. She realized that within her clawed grasp she held something tightly, so tightly that the metal claws tipping her gloves were sunken into her palm down to the bone.

Slowly the teenager parted her eyelids to look at what she held within her gloved grip: It was a strange oblong shape, rounded and scorched black. Dozens of hairline cracks and dents marred its otherwise smooth surface. She recognized the object, and that recognition summoned up a wave of bile she barely held down.

It was The Bogeyman's mask. Stray bits of ash falling like snowflakes fell from the neckhole.

Shego didn't even notice that both her arms were still ignited at full power; the sheer heat of the two miniature novas was enough to fold the floor beneath her feet. There was no body in sight, just a still glowing red-hot spot on the floor. Bits of blackened carbon stained the steel around it.

She watched in numb awe as the mask slipped from her loosening fingers and fell to the steel, splitting open like a egg and releasing a white cloud of ash into the air. The reality of her situation slowly dawned on her and she panicked stumbling backwards and landing on her behind. The mask continued to crumble apart in front of her until there was naught but a steaming mound of smoldering dust.

Shego's lip trembled as she observed the macabre sight before her; the implications of it were simply too much for her to bear. She'd never seen Bogey without that mask. But it was always possible that she had wrenched it off of him, and he escaped, right? She had been fighting him, she knew that, but how in the world had it ended up like _this_? She shook her head, her jaw clenched. She could figure that out _after_ she got herself back under control.

With forced concentration, she dragged her Glow back into its restrained state as she struggled to remember what brought her to this point. The last thing Shego could remember with clarity was… _NO!_

Suddenly she screamed and clutched her head, she screamed and roared at the world, hatred, frustration, malice, rage, bitterness, sorrow, grief, all were cried out as the eighteen-year-old laid there on the ground, curled up around herself and clutching her head in her hands with enough force that her claws were lacerating the corners of her face. She remembered what had just occurred, what she had _done_, and now all she wanted to do was lay there and die.

'_He tricked me into… he made me kill… he, I…'_

Her thoughts were an incomprehensible jumble of horrific revelations, the thing that she had been tricked into doing; she couldn't stop seeing it. She couldn't stop remembering the splash of blood hitting her face, the smug synthetic laughter, the anger, the horror, the hatred, and _then_… She continued screaming until her body could support it no longer, and her raw throat failed her.

She wasn't sure how long she lay there, time was beyond her notice, however her wide, bloodshot eyes instinctively moved towards a small shape in her peripheral vision.

The shape was, at first, little more then a blurred lump on the ground. Shego's eyes were still blinded by her tears, but slowly her vision cleared and the blurred image focused into a clearer form. A young lifeless body laying there, several deep angry green gouges running up and across her back. The child lay still atop of a pool of her own blood. Shego stared blankly at the young child, _her_ child, lying still, wet black bangs hiding the girl's cherubim features. Proof of Shego's sin was just lying there on the metal foundation in front of her. She continued to stare at the tiny body with hypnotic intensity, as though in a fugue.

And then she noticed something amazing, and impossible.

Steam was steadily beginning to rise up from the four-year-old's injuries and Shego could hear a slight sizzling sound from the rain as it came down on the child's smoking wounds and evaporated. That sound could only mean one thing, _life_.

'_She's still alive!'_

Too fast for the naked eye to register, Shego bolted off the floor and made her way over to the toddler's side, hoping, _praying_ that what she saw wasn't some beautiful hallucination brought about by her desperate imagination. Looking down at the young girl, Shego could see her chest rise and fall ever so slightly. Agni was still somehow alive, despite her grievous injuries, and despite her lifeless appearance, the young girl was still barely holding onto life. Her regenerative systems were working into overtime, supplying energy to the cells bordering her wounds and forcing them to multiply several thousand times beyond their natural rate. The torn bleeding skin was actually glowing with a faint green light as the edges of her ragged flesh visibly attempted to pull themselves back together.

Shego had always secretly cursed and loathed the comet that had struck her and her siblings with their current powers, but right at that moment, she couldn't have been more grateful for it. Without that power, a normal child, hell, even a normal adult, would have died from blood loss or shock. Thanks to their overly resilient bodies however, Agni refused to give up the ghost. The girl was as stubborn as her mother to be sure.

Shego reached down and gently, but also enthusiastically, picked up the small form and held it to herself in a tight embrace. The heroine reveled in the feeling of the light breaths on her neck, and the girl's body heat competing with her own. It spoke of _life_, and that was all that mattered.

'_I'll gotta get her to a hospital; her body's going to be totally drained by the time that wound is closed. She needs an IV drip or something before she dehydrates…'_

Standing up, Shego wrapped both of her arms securely around Agni to support her small body as she got to her feet. She wasn't pleased about moving her until the cuts were finished closing but she lacked the luxury of waiting. A quick look around made it obvious that the building was on its last leg. Her fight with Bogeyman had been all over the complex, with her powers melting and igniting everything in their path. Support beams, concrete foundation, all of it was crushed, sliced through, melted down, or simply overtaxed from taking on the extra burden. She could actually hear the building creaking and shaking with every passing instant. It was a miracle that it hadn't fallen already.

'_Just one more to add to the growing list.'_

Seeing no other option, Shego ran for it. She didn't bother avoid the fires, which was a good thing since they were numerous, and some of the floors were burned clean through. However, the dangerous course did little to slow her down as she jumped and outmaneuvered any and all pits and falling debris. The feeling of wetness dripping from Agni's back only served to spur her on.

In spite of this dangerous situation, her mind was not entirely on the task before her. In a sense Shego's body was moving entirely on autopilot. The majority of her thought processes' were all focused on what she had done, and what she would have to do now.

'_Her being alive doesn't change any damn thing. The fact of the matter is that I almost… I thought I…'_She suppressed a deep snarl as she tried to avoid that line of thinking; all it served to do was distract her from the task at hand. However despite her attempts, she simply couldn't help herself.

'_I can't protect her, I'm a hero and I can't even watch over my own fucking family! Well of course I can't, I can barely even see her anymore…'_

'_That son-of-a-bitch! I'm _glad_ I killed him. I'd love to do it twice! I wish he wasn't wearing that stupid mask; then I could have seen the look on his face when I roasted him. I hope he keeps on burnin' in hell; 'cause I saw to it that he burned on Earth.'_ Her justified raging didn't, however, distract her from her earlier thoughts, regarding the girl in her arms.

The facts were all clearly lined up in her head; she couldn't protect Agni. This wasn't the first time either, just the worst. There had been other villains, other attempts, but none so successful as Bogeyman.

The stress of it all was driving Shego to her wits end; she was having trouble even _caring_ any longer. Most of the time she would just let smalltime creeps run off, and when she did decide to pull her share of the team's weight, she made sure that the creeps she brought in were not turned in to the authorities until they were reduced to a bloody wreck for presuming to waste the heroine's time. Hego called it excessive, Shego called it efficient.

Be that as it may, she was under no delusions that her brothers were becoming increasingly wary of her and her actions, and she admitted that they were right to. She didn't like the kind of person she was becoming. She had never used to be so bitter, so angry, so disillusioned with _everything_. Team Go, school, her home, she had nowhere to turn to anymore where she could just be herself. Where she was the one to set her own expectations. Not ever since he left. Not anymore.

The _one_ person in the world who loved Shego for just being herself was ravaged on Death's door in her arms, and it was all _her fault!_

Being a hero with green skin didn't really help maintaining a hidden identity either. Any villain with even the slightest trace of common sense could find her if they put their mind to it. Hego, being the complete idiot he was, still thought that going by an alias and wearing a black mask actually fooled anyone but Aviarius.

Shego remembered back when Dyno-saur burst in on their front room when the lot of them was just lounging around at home. _Not_ the Go-Tower, their _home_. After Dyno-Saur there was The Subterraniac, Omega Brain, Blasting-Zone, she could go on. Shego couldn't believe how many masked psychopaths she'd had to deal with outside of her green-and-blacks. Bogeyman had been the first to go directly after Agni though, which made all the difference. In the end however, it all came down to one thing…

'_Being a hero is putting Agni in front of a firing squad.'_

Shego's rambling train of thought was cut off when she saw the building entryway twenty feet in front of her, which was a blessed thing considering that the entire building was finally starting to come down on the two. Without pause, she charged forwards while crumbling foundation collapsed all around them. The passageway got closer and closer but she wouldn't be able to make it in time. Then entryway started to give way.

'_Fuuuuuuck!!'_

At her full sprinting speed, Shego could have just barely have made it in time; but having to constantly jump over obstacles and avoid falling debris was slowing her down terribly, and it was costing her in the long run. Before she had a chance to lose hope, a very familiar flickering blue light filled her vision accompanied by a massive form supporting the crumbling entryway.

"Shego, hurry up, this whole thing is coming down, NOW!" He shouted over, his voice strained from maintaining such immense weight on his shoulders.

Shego certainly didn't need to be told twice. She adjusted the weight in her arms and bolted for the crumbling passage crossing beneath Hego's thick right arm, stopping until she was greeted by her other three siblings on the slick, wet blacktop. With a strained roar, Hego let go of the frame and threw himself backwards just as the entire unfinished complex finished coming down in a pile of crushed concrete, rebar, and twisted girders. When the smoke finally cleared, her brothers all stood around her with varying degrees of surprise or shock.

Mego looked over at the remains of the destroyed construction site before casting an annoyed look in Shego's direction. "Subtle, Shego, real subtle."

The Wego's were the first to notice whom Shego held tightly in her arms. The twins quickly ran up to their big sister in undisguised worry.

"Sis, what happened, why is Agni here?" asked one. "What happened to her, should we call an ambulance?" asked the other.

Shego quickly backed up in order to maintain her precious space, and flashed the twins a warning glare. "Back. Off."

They quickly complied.

She thought for a moment. An inquisitive glance showed that Agni's wound had completely scabbed over, and even that was starting to fade, however, she still needed to get some nutrients back into her system as soon as possible. Shego didn't, and wouldn't, admit it, but she was utterly exhausted. She completely lacked the energy to run Agni to the nearest clinic under her own power.

Resigning herself, she turned to Mego.

"Call an ambulance for me."

Mego scoffed and was about to say something, but the venomous look flashed in his direction was more than enough to shut him up completely. He pulled out his Go-Phone and made the call.

Shego sat down on the curb, and was surprised by how stiff she felt. It made sense though, she had been running and fighting for well over three hours straight, and on top of that she was emotionally drained. She gratefully took notice of the fact that Agni's breathing against her had become more regular, less pained.

She was glad the girl was unconscious though, after all that. Agni must have been terrified out of her mind… and might have seen what had happened. If the girl ever found out, Shego wouldn't be able to deal. She looked up when a large shadow fell over them.

"We came over here when we heard reports of bright _green_ _flashes_ and _explosions_. What went on here, Shego?" Hego asked sternly using his patented leader-voice.

She flashed him an open sneer. "Bogeyman took Agni… he tried to use her to get at me."

Mego's eyes widened. "What? You mean that freak in black? I thought we threw him in a cell last week! He got out _already_!?"

Hego narrowed his eyes. "So Shego… where is he now?"

Her black lips pulled into a cruel smirk. "Hell would be my first guess."

The Wegos stepped back automatically, both at the news and at the cruelly blasé way their sister spoke. Hego's mouth hung open and he just stared, having trouble formulating his thoughts. Mego however, took the information far better then his brothers.

"Do you have any idea how poorly this is gonna reflect on us, or infinitely more important, on _me_?" He said placing his hand on his chest to emphasize his words.

Shego's expression once again became frighteningly negative. "Ask me how much I care. I dare you."

Mego stepped back, not willing to press his luck. He had never seen Shego so angry before, and now knew what kind of damage she was capable of when pushed to it.

The closest he'd ever seen his big sister in such a state was when Hego tried to discipline that little bastard of her's when she'd spilled ink over his tax forms. Shego nearly put her older brother through a wall that day. That event seemed tame when compared to her actions now.

Hego, in spite of all this, didn't feel the need to show restraint like his three brothers. In his mind he was the leader, he was the oldest, and his word needed to be followed.

"Shego, I can't believe that you… that you…"

"Killed him? I believe those were the words you were looking for. I _killed_ him. Actually, to be specific, I ripped his _fucking_ head off!" Her eyes narrowed to back the vehemence of her statement. "And I'd give almost _anything_ for a repeat performance."

"Shego!" Hego was able to exclaim little more than her name from the sheer black-heartedness of her statement.

"Don't you dare "Shego" _me_, Hego! You didn't have your kid _kidnapped_, threatened by a _psychopath_, and t-then, t…"She trailed off momentarily, catching herself before making a big mistake. "I just so sick of this crap! Y'know what? The next time someone tries that shit with me, I'll make 'em _wish_ I'd kill 'em! I hate this goody-two-shoes _bullshit_! It's running me ragged, and ruining the quality of my life. I'm so through with it! All of it! _I. AM. DONE. _Do you get me, _Leader_?"

Hego looked horrified at what his sister was implying. Mego sulked in the background, and the Wegos hid behind Hego's body to avoid their sister's cold gaze. The distant sound of an approaching siren attracted Shego's attention away from her siblings, for which they were all secretly grateful. She looked down at the tiny sleeping face resting in her arms, nodded resolutely, and stood to make her way towards the approaching ambulance. Or at least she intended to before Hego ran up and snagged her shoulder.

"You have exactly one second to drop that hand Hego."

"Shego, you can't just quit, were not just a team, we're _family_! Heroes don't kill people, and Heroes don't _quit_!" He begged desperately.

Any further arguments on his part were cut off when a green and black elbow all but ruptured his stomach. Hego's face turned blue, or at least bluer, and fell hard to his knees. After taking a moment to regain his wind, he looked up to see his sister's retreating form.

"Then I guess that means I'm no hero."

It was years before she saw her brothers again.

---Possible Residence: Current Time---

Shego leaned up against the side of the house, her still eyes glazed over in remembrance of that night.

'_Who would have thought that leaving would be the easy part… Leaving Team Go was the best thing I've ever done and I don't regret it. I have a glamorous stress free life now, a job that I love… and a kid that I never get to see… Wow, I really suck at these self-pep talks, don't I?'_

Shego was shaken from her troubling inner monologue by a clear and familiar young voice. "You can come out now, Shego. I sent Agni inside to clean herself off."

'_What? How did she-?'_

She scowled and crossed her arms. Standing up, expression tense, she marched over to where the redhead stood in the middle of the yard. Kim regarded her with the same guarded hostility. They were still enemies after all. A day and a half of common interests wouldn't change that. Kim raised her eyebrow at the stalking thief and smirked smugly. "You're nowhere near as sneaky as you like to think, Shego."

The green ex-hero scoffed. "Just keep thinking that, Pumpkin. See how far that thinking gets you in the future. And to set things straight, the only reason you figured out I was over there is because I'm having a _really_ off day."

Her right hand made a fist. "That doesn't mean I not in the mood to beat you down though."

The redheaded hero sighed and shook her head. "As much as I'd like to drag you kicking a screaming to a nice cozy cell, I think we both know why you're here."

Agreeing internally, Shego decided that now certainly wasn't a good time for posturing. She lowered her guard enough to manage warranted semi- civilized discussion. "Your right."

"Obviously," Kim said. There wasn't any other possible reason for her rival's impromptu visit. "I'd like to talk to you about her too."

As they spoke, they were completely unaware that a third pair of green eyes observed the hero and the thief the entire time.

Chapter 7: End

* * *

**Immense thanks to Eoraptor for editing this chapter.**


	8. Cupid Has A Death Ray

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 8: Cupid Has A Death Ray**

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* * *

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_'Being green does have its benefits_,' Agni thought, her skin blending in well with the bushes.

Agni had known that Kim was hiding something from the moment the hero had abruptly told the pale-green girl to go inside and clean up. Kim's instructions just didn't make sense, particularly since she wasn't even that dirty―in her personal opinion, anyway. It took more than some tumbling around to get her to build up a sweat of any kind. There was no reason for Kim to tell her to go inside, no reason at all. Not unless she wanted Agni gone for something... _private_.

Now she was watching what appeared to be a very tense conversation between her mother, whom she adored, and Teen Hero Kim Possible, who _could_ apparently do anything as long as it annoyed and frustrated her.

Knowing that questioning Kim's directive would only result in half-assed excuses, Agni performed some sleight-of-foot. She had appeared to do as she had been instructed, but the exact instant that Agni felt that the redhead's attention was off of her, the green girl had gone into full sneak-mode. She picked a nice thick shrub and hid behind it, a pair of long leaves framing her view of the conversation.

She remembered how, when she was younger, she would always sneak up on and surprise her Uncle Mego. She loved the girlish shriek he emitted whenever she popped up. The trick to it was something her Wego uncles had taught her. Her twin uncles were always the best resource for fun stuff like that―when they were around, at least. Of her uncles, she greatly preferred them to the alternatives. On the other hand, that was a contest one could win merely by showing up and not being an ass.

Mego seemed to hate kids as a general rule, and being forced to live with one for several years just crystallized that hatred. He'd complained about Agni every chance he got. Which basically meant that he complained about Agni when Shego wasn't around, because he didn't want to wake up with his hair on fire.

_'Not that he needs an excuse to complain about everything in the frickin' world anyway.'_

What really chapped Agni's ass about Uncle Mego was his secret nickname for her he thought no one knew about: "My Sister's Bastard". When Agni had first read that in his precious journal, she hadn't known what a "bastard" even was, but she could tell that it was some kind of insult. Later, she found out its definition. It wasn't quite as bad as she had thought, but it was still hurtful. Agni was glad when he finally had the good sense to move out.

She disliked Hego for entirely different reasons. He was pompous, he was arrogant, and he always thought he knew what was best for everyone. This despite the fact that he was almost thirty and still working at a fast-food restaurant! He was also completely vapid and a total comic book nerd. When Agni was ten, she had tried to approach him with her problems at school. Either he hadn't gotten it or he simply didn't want to; all he had done was smile wistfully, say "Ahh, the joys of childhood," and send her on her way with the asinine parting advice "Cherish these precious moments."

She put dog crap in his shoes later that night. Agni had certainly cherished _that_ precious moment.

The Wegos, however, were always pretty nice to her, all things considered. It probably had something to do with their generally gregarious demeanor, but it was still appreciated. They always insisted she drop the "Uncle" and just call them Wego. They even once said that Agni was easier to think of as a baby sister rather than a niece, since the alternative made them feel old. She never could quite get the hang of that. The only problem was that they were always so busy, not to mention all over the place. The Wegos had an active social life; they were full-time college students living it up in some dorm outside of Go City. It was a cruel joke that the only relatives besides her mother that she actually liked were never around when she needed them.

Agni's train of thought was suddenly derailed when she heard Kim tell Shego to reveal herself. Her green eyes widened and snapped to the area that Kim was looking at, somewhere around the side of the house. Slowly, much to Agni's shock, Shego appeared from around the corner, approaching Kim at a guarded pace and stopping at about ten feet in front of Kim. A perfect lunging distance if needed, the twelve year old noted.

_'How the hell did she find me so quickly!?_' thought the girl, mouth hanging open in disbelief. She had thought she would have at least three days to herself given the care she took to obfuscate her mother, and yet she had managed only about nine hours. It was a humbling realization. _'Does she have me bugged or chipped or something?'_

Agni had never pegged Kim as a very dangerous person, even taking her notable skills into account. Kim just didn't have the killer instinct that Agni and her mother had in abundance. However, when she saw how the two regarded one another, the pale girl suddenly found it necessary to cast aside that assumption. It was as though Kim's personality had done a complete one-eighty. Any trace of warmth on her face fell away until all that remained was a razor-edged attentiveness befitting a rattlesnake poised to strike. She didn't look _dangerous_, per se; it was more like she was chillingly certain of her ability to cause harm. In her letters to Agni, Shego had often repeated a maxim: "People who _look_ dangerous are never as dangerous as people who don't." Agni had thought she understood her mother's point, but she had never truly grasped it until this moment. It was disconcerting for Agni, to say the least.

_'I guess a girl her age doesn't smash up sociopath nutjobs on a semi-daily basis without having something to show for it,'_ Agni muttered mentally as she watched the redhead.

She cast her gaze toward Shego and felt even more confused. Shego had also shrugged off any trace of the motherly compassion Agni associated so closely with her, replacing it with a tensed ferocity hidden underneath a thin veneer of cool indifference. Chills ran up her spine just looking at Shego.

_'That's my mom!?'_

It was strange; a large part of her wanted to abandon her post, to sprint forward and throw her arms around her mother's waist like she had in Nevada. Seeing her standing there, so close, was like a slowly twisting knife in her gut. However, another part of her was honestly frightened of the woman in her current state; she had never seen her mother look so cold.

_'This must be Mom when I'm not around… Way scary.'_

The two exchanged what the girl could only assume was standard banter before the inevitable fight. To the girl's surprise, however, the volatile situation was defused when Kim mentioned Agni. The moment her name was thrown out amidst the posturing, both Kim and her mother's aggressive auras vanished completely. It was almost as if a light switch had been flipped. It was disorienting how quickly the two were able to go from barely checked aggression to what could pass for civilized - albeit guarded - conversation.

The thing that really amazed Agni, however, was that she had been the catalyst for the change. What exactly were they going to decide? Kim hadn't come up with any kind of plan that Agni knew about, and her mother had made her intentions very clear on the phone the night before. What other options were there? She couldn't think of any. She was going to be thrown to the wolves! It had been stupid to think that Shego could have done anything for her in the first place. All the girl could do was sit behind the bush and watch her destiny unfold.

* * *

"So," Kim started, clearly lost for where to begin. "About Agni."

"Yeah," Shego added, looking equally uncomfortable. "About her."

Kim gave a little faux-cough and spoke, gazing intently at her shoes. "I guess you're planning to take her back to her grandparents' place, right?"

"Well I don't _want_ to!" Shego stated defensively, adding, "…but it's not like I have much of a choice."

"Yes, you do! Of _course_ you do!" she all but shouted, suddenly glaring at Shego with more force than she had actually intended. Both were briefly shocked by the outburst, but Kim didn't allow herself to waste much time before continuing. "You and I both know that. Why can't you just take her back?"

"Wow, gee, I dunno…" Shego drawled, every syllable thick with sarcasm.

"The fact that you're a fugitive who is wanted in several countries does not have _anything_ to do with it and you know it." She gestured dismissively to reinforce her point.

"I mean, it's not like you're a stickler for legality, is it?" She crossed her arms, her brow furrowed in annoyance. "You could take her back right now and nobody'd--"

"No I couldn't! Screw you!" Shego growled, abandoning her indifference for anger. She took several steps forward, so that she was nearly on top of Kim. "You just don't _get it_, do you?!"

Kim looked up at the taller woman, neither fazed nor intimidated by her proximity and aggression. "Yeah, you're right, I _don't_ get it," she said, her body language suddenly making her seem three times Shego's size. "Why don't you just _explain_ it to me? What are you, _scared_!?"

"Listen up, _shorty_! I--" Shego choked back her planned scathing rebuke, instead slowly taking a step back to regain her space. She shook her head.

"…Just… I wouldn't be good for her, okay? Trust me, I'm a lousy parent." Shego turned away from Kim's olive gaze, shaking her head.

Surprised by Shego's change in attitude, Kim calmed down and chose her next words carefully.

"You're worse than the alternative?"

Shego regarded Kim with a cautious sideways glance. Suspicious, she began again. "And what do _you_ know about the alternative?"

"Honestly? Not much, at least beyond Agni's highly edited version." Kim shrugged, She stepped in front of Shego, meeting her eye-to eye. "But I do know that it was bad enough to make a twelve-year-old girl run across three states just to find _you_!"

Shego opened her mouth to retort, but stopped when she realized the redhead's argument made more sense than any she could offer.

Seeing an opening, Kim jumped for it. "Can't you just... reconsider?"

Shego scoffed and glared down at Kim. "Why do you care so much-- no, scratch that, of course you _care_, you're a prissy little control freak with a messiah complex!"

"And you're a kleptomaniacal sociopath!" Kim shot back without realizing it. Responding to Shego's insults had become a reflexive action over the years.

"Yeah," Shego said, finding her own opening in Kim's argument. "And that tends to be poor parental material, don't you agree?"

Kim sighed and shook her head, giving up on the aggressive approach. Shego obviously treated every exchange of words the same way she treated physical combat: never giving an inch. Kim would have to try for the moral high ground. "I'm just trying to look out for Agni's best interests."

"…Y- Yeah," Shego finally said, mellowing some. That was a sentiment she could certainly agree with. "Me too."

"_She_ seems to think you'd do a much better job than her grandparents, and I'm inclined to trust her word over theirs. Or _yours_, to be honest." Kim stated, a bit of uncertainty creeping into her voice. Honestly, she still had trouble picturing the pale thief raising anyone, especially someone who so openly hero-worshipped her.

Shego could see what Kim was getting at, and it amused her. She forced herself to maintain her scowl despite that. "She was four when we last saw each other in person. She's just idealized me, that's all."

"Well _that's_ obvious enough. I mean, I know I'd probably end up throwing Agni in jail at some point, but I'd at least be throwing a _happy_ Agni in jail." Kim said, smiling impishly as she added, "Well, happi_er_. 'Serene and content' isn't really Agni's style, is it?"

"Hah, you're a riot, Cupcake. Which is what Agni would probably start if you put her in prison." Shego stated dryly. Her eyes widened slightly, and she glanced around the backyard as if in search of something. Kim didn't notice; she was too busy working up the courage to ask Shego a question she knew the thief wouldn't enjoy answering.

"Hey…" Kim finally said, briefly drawing Shego's attention away from her presumably nonexistent quarry.

"Why did you leave in the first place?"

She'd actually managed to ask the question, much to Shego's visible displeasure. Despite the dirty look, the redhead continued. "Agni told me—"

"Hold up," Shego said, cutting Kim off with a "stop" gesture. She walked over to one of the bushes framing the backyard, smirked slightly, and shoved her hand through the branches. She fished out the struggling form of her daughter, holding her aloft by the collar of her sweatshirt.

"Hi there," said Shego, bemused.

Kim saw the image as reminiscent of a lioness holding her cub by the scruff. Kim doubted, however, that kittens struggled quite as much when lifted. Shego finally dropped Agni, and the young girl somehow managed the grace needed to land on her feet.

Shego gave Agni a harsh look and pointed at the house. "Inside. This is private."

"Grr, how'd you even know I was here?" Agni growled. She was sure she hadn't made a single noise, and she'd been under complete cover. The only way Shego could have known where she was would have been if she had known ahead of time, and that was impossible. That comet had given the Drago children many things, but X-Ray vision had not been one of them.

Right?

"Because I'm just that good." Shego said, smiling archly. When she saw the sour look on Agni's face, she decided to try a different tactic. Kneeling down until she was eye-to-eye with her estranged daughter, Shego placed both gloved hands on Agni's shoulders. "Listen, why don't you go clean yourself up and we'll talk after that, huh? Can you be patient and give the adults some privacy 'til then, kiddo? Please?"

After a moment of silent consideration, Agni slowly nodded. Shego and Agni smiled at each other, then the girl turned and headed for the house's back door. Before stepping inside, Agni turned back around and regarded Kim silently for a moment.

Then she stuck her tongue out at the cheerleader.

Kim sighed in defeat. Beating one Shego was nearly impossible; two was out of the question.

"Bah, _adults_..." Agni grumbled, rolling her eyes as she entered the Possible residence.

Free from prying eyes, Kim started to restate her earlier question. However, something odd occurred to her. "How did you know she was hiding there? _I_ didn't even notice."

The thief smirked. "It's a mother-daughter thing."

* * *

---Possible Residence: Earlier that Afternoon---

Jim and Tim Possible were used to weirdness. Not only was their sister a globetrotting adventurer and heroine, but they themselves were genius engineers and inventors despite their young age. They occasionally joined their sister on her adventures (much to her chagrin), and had even saved the world on their own once or twice.

Throughout their relatively short lives, they had played a vital part in taking down mad scientists, mutant bees (of their own creation), and even giant toy devil-robots. Their inventions had saved lives time and again, and though they were often reckless and overenthusiastic, their sheer expertise and unrelenting optimism always won the day.

Despite all of their experience, when the mysterious girl from yesterday afternoon left Kim's bedroom, pushed past them, and headed towards the restroom, they were struck dumb. Where had the girl been since the afternoon prior? Who was she? What was she doing in Kim's room? And, most distressing of all, why was the girl now _pale green_?

The dark-haired girl cast a brief and dismissive glance at the brothers, regarding them as one might regard a solitary ant. Then she turned and strode casually into the bathroom, casually shoving the bathroom door just hard enough to shut it. Behind the door, they heard the telltale hiss of water spewing from a shower nozzle. Jim and Tim stared at the closed door blankly for well over a minute before Tim looked over at Jim.

"Hey Jim, am I going crazy—"

"Yes," answered Jim, in a somewhat distracted voice.

Tim smirked and shook his head. "Whatever. I was _gonna _say, am I going crazy or was that girl a different color yesterday?"

Jim nodded absently. "Yeah, she's... Yeah."

"Musta spent the night, huh?" said Tim, scratching the back of his head. When he wasn't favored with a response, he turned to his brother and quirked an eyebrow. Jim seemed lost in his own head, studying the restroom door with an intense concentration he usually reserved for partially constructed machines. For some reason, Tim found that disconcerting. "Jim?"

Jim yelped and spun around to face his brother. "Huh? Yeah? Didja...?"

Tim sighed in annoyance. "I _said_, I think that weird girl stayed the night."

Jim nodded. "Oh, yeah, she musta, like…" His face lit up suddenly. "Hey! Let's go ask Kim who that girl is!"

Tim thought Jim seemed suspiciously eager. He wasn't quite sure _why_ he felt the need to designate his brother's behavior as "suspicious" rather than merely "odd," but he was somehow sure he had a good reason.

_What's with _him_?_

Tim craned his eyebrow. "Why? She's probably just, like, some girl Kim's doing stuff for or something."

Jim frowned slightly and shrugged. "I dunno… I mean, it's not like we have much better to do, right?"

Tim looked at Jim in wide-eyed astonishment. "Nothing better to do? Weren't we gonna work on that force-field generator? And after that we were gonna finish up the repulsor coil. We've got _plenty_ to do!"

_'Wasn't it_ his_ idea to finish all that tonight so we could test it tomorrow?'_

Jim shook his head. "Look, I didn't forget about that stuff, but this won't take too long, right? C'mon, don't'cha at least wanna know why she's _green_?"

Knowing how stubborn Jim could be, Tim decided to save himself some grief and simply accede to his brother's demands. After all, it _was_ another opportunity to bother their sister, a hobby both boys were fond of no matter how questionable the pretext. And this pretext was certainly questionable; Jim's sudden interest in that girl was, if nothing else, vexing for Tim. He just didn't get it.

Tim was shaken from his reverie when he saw his other half sprinting up the stairs leading to Kim's attic room; never one to be left behind, Tim abandoned his train of thought and ran up to his brother.

They both started knocking - _banging_ in Kim's opinion - on her door. From inside they heard their older sibling's aggravated voice cut through the background noise. "Get lost, Tweebs!"

"What was that, Sis?" asked Jim coyly.

"We can't _hear_ you," added Tim, playing off his brother. This routine always managed to get to Kim within the first minute. Tim presumed the next few minutes would play out as they always did. It was inevitable; Kim would open the door, probably threaten them with a painfully slow death, and then chase them around the house in a futile attempt to enact said threat. Their sister was nothing if not predictable.

"When I get out there, I'm gonna make the stuff from _Splatter Mall_ look like _Babes in Toyland_!" Kim shouted, forcefully shoving her door open and preparing to rush her brothers. She halted, however, when she saw the two still standing in place; she had grown accustomed to their habit of running off in two different directions. Instead, the two of them just grinned up at her impishly.

"Hey, Kim..." said Tim.

"We want to ask you something..." added Jim.

"What's up with that girl?" They both finished in unison. They both knew it annoyed Kim when they talked like that, which only meant that they practiced at it for that very reason. While Tim could have cared less about the girl, Jim was genuinely curious, and they preferred to appear united at all times.

Kim craned an eyebrow suspiciously. "Why do _you_ care?"

"Humor us," said Tim.

"We're curious," added Jim.

Their older sister frowned and shook her head. "Uh-uh, no way. I don't know what you two are up to, but I want _no_ part of it. It's none of your business anyway."

"Aww, c'mon! Just tell me her name!" Jim blurted, catching Kim's attention before she had a chance to slide her door completely shut. The almost pleading undertone in his voice caused both Kim and Tim to cast confused looks at their brother. That uneasy feeling Tim had experienced earlier came back in full force. His twin had never shown such interest in anyone else before.

_'No one outside of us, at least…'_

Kim stared blankly for a moment, then visibly shook off her reverie and regarded Jim with an unreadable look. "Um, her name's Agni."

"Agni?" Jim asked, and then smiled when Kim nodded.

"Thanks, Kim!" He then grabbed Tim by the arm and bolted off to the room they shared before Kim had a chance to say anything else.

When they finally reached their room, Tim stared at Jim as if he were from Mars. "What's _with_ you today?"

"Nothing's 'with' me. Hey, let's finish up the shield generator's grav-shifter," said Jim, furrowing his brow. He walked towards their current improvised workstation and picked up one of the tools they had filched from their father. He immediately and happily threw himself into his work, a strange smile permanently plastered on his face. "Hmmmm… Agni…"

Tim continued to stare Jim for well over a minute, then finally shook it off and took his usual place by his brother's side. Though they were physically next to each other, Tim felt as though they were on opposite sides of a canyon.

* * *

---Possible Residence: Three hours later---

After several hours of labor, the Tweebs decided to take a break from their work on the shield generator and went downstairs for a quick snack.

Tim was more than grateful for the distraction. Jim had been a complete space-cadet for the last few hours, and Tim was sure it had been that... _girl's_ fault. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but she had done something to Jim. She was incontrovertibly the reason that his twin wasn't acting like himself, and Tim decided then and there that he wanted nothing to do with her. He honestly hoped that Kim finished doing whatever she was doing soon. Then Agni could make like a hoverpod and take off, and Jim could get back on track.

Ironically, the two females in question were the first things the twins saw when they got to the kitchen. Both twins stopped dead in their tracks at the unusual sight in the window. Their sister and that Agni girl were in a fight. Not only that, but Agni's hands were glowing with the same green aura as that crazy Shego lady Kim was always dealing with.

The twins ran to the window to watch. Tim was just watching out of curiosity, but had he glanced over at his brother, he would have seen the weird smirk on Jim's face. The other twin wasn't so much focused on the fight as he was the smaller girl.

After a minute or two, Kim stopped the match and said something to Agni that neither twin could hear. The pale girl shrugged and made her way towards the door, disappearing from sight. Kim, to their surprise, walked off in a totally different direction seconds later.

Tim smirked triumphantly._ 'Maybe she's going home…'_

Jim frowned when Tim pulled him in the direction of the kitchen, reminding him of why they came downstairs in the first place. With nothing further for them to watch, Jim begrudgingly conceded. They sat at the table with two ham sandwiches and a bag of barbecue potato chips in front of them, eating in awkward silence.

It was Jim who broke the ice. "Wasn't she _cool_!?"

Tim didn't need to ask who he meant. They had both seen Kim fight a dozen times over, so he wouldn't have gotten so excited over that. He could only have meant that other girl. The creepy one.

Tim shrugged dismissively. "She was _okay_. Kim was totally gonna win, though."

Jim frowned and took another big bite from his sandwich. "Kim _always_ wins. I just thought it was cool that Agni could fight like that."

Tim sighed, but then he remembered something he thought was worth mentioning. "What about that weird green fire stuff she was doing? Didn't that seem kinda, y'know, _familiar_?"

Again, Tim wasn't offered an immediate response. He looked up from his own sandwich to find that Jim was once again lost in thought. Tim frowned fiercely. "Jim!"

Jim looked over at his brother and frowned. "What? Oh, yeah, prob'ly a connection with, ah, the green... Yeah..." He shrugged and stood to throw his now-empty paper plate in the recycling bin, with Tim following suit moments later. As the second plate fell, the girl in question burst through the back door.

Jim and Tim quickly made way for the current object of their observations: a fuming light green twelve-year-old of the fairer sex, grumbling to herself and glaring at the two boys as she passed.

Agni walked over to the living room couch. She practically threw herself along its length, crossing her arms, and glaring bloody death at the far wall. The boys could almost _see_ a black cloud hovering over the preteen and showering her with buckets of rain. Even a moron could tell she was irritated beyond all reason.

Despite the numerous warning signs, Jim just grinned and hurried off in Agni's direction... At least, he had intended to. However, Tim snagged his arm before he could go any further. Jim glared at his brother in annoyance. "What are you doing?"

Tim regarded Jim with a look meant to indicate the all-too-obvious flaws in his brother's reasoning. "Think about it, dummy! If she's connected to that Shego lady, then isn't it possible that she's evil _too_?"

Jim shook his head. "I think there's, like, an age requirement for evil. You have to be eighteen or older or something like that."

"Nuh-uh!"

"Yeah-huh!"

"Nuh-uh!"

Jim sighed and shot an annoyed look at his brother. "Well we'll never know if we don't talk to her, right? C'mon, where's your sense of adventure?"

_'Back upstairs with our science projects,' _Tim thought. He didn't have the heart to say it out loud, so he grudgingly followed his errant brother to the couch and the girl splayed across it.

Agni seemed to have calmed down a fair amount, at least compared to the last time the brothers had borne witness to her Medusaesque death-gaze. Now she just lay there with her eyes closed and her arms crossed. Her brow was furrowed with intense frustration, the only indication that she hadn't fallen asleep. Tim could relate. When the twins stopped along the side of the couch, the girl opened her left eye halfway to look over at them before closing it again, dismissing their existence in favor of her own thoughts.

Jim cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his head before speaking. His voice was slightly stilted and overly hesitant. "Hey… um, Kim said your name was Agni, right? …So, uh… Hi?"

Tim rolled his eyes and suppressed a sigh. Agni didn't do anything at all, acting as though she hadn't heard him in the first place.

"Um, oh! I'm Jim, and this is Tim," Jim jerked his thumb in Tim's direction. It was a pointless gesture; Agni's eyes had yet to reopen.

"I―uh, I mean _we_, we were… um…"

Without bothering to open her eyes, the pale girl finally spoke. "What the _hell_ do you _want_!?"

Agni cut the befuddled boy off before he had a chance to babble any further. Tim thought it was an embarrassing display on Jim's part, and he intended to ride Jim about it in private, but keeping up a united front was always the higher priority.

Undaunted by her harsh tone, Jim continued with more confidence, having just been presented with evidence that the girl had at least been paying attention. "Well, it's not often Kim deals with kids our age, 'cept maybe Wade. I―I mean _we_, were curious about what you needed her for."

Agni frowned and finally did open her eyes, casting a dismissive but curious look in the Tweebs' direction. "You help her out or somethin'?"

Jim blinked, unsure of the context behind the question, so Tim answered on his behalf. "Sometimes, but not really. Mostly we just mess with her."

Agni sat up and glared at the both of them. "Well, I guess that makes it none of your business, doesn't it?"

"Oh, uh… yeah." Jim said, and thought for a moment before finally smiling. "That stuff you did with Kim earlier was really awesome. That fighting, I mean..."

Agni was visibly thrown by the compliment. She stared for a moment, blinking before turning away and shrugging. "Ah... um... okay?"

If her reaction to Jim's statement was anything to go by, Tim surmised, this girl hadn't been complimented very much. Seeing the opening presented by his brother, Tim decided to ignore that line of inquiry for the moment and ask the question that had been bothering him since he'd seen her fight.

"How'd you do that fire thing?" he asked, sounding slightly pushier than he had intended. He backed up slightly when the girl's eyes flashed bloody murder in his direction.

"_Also_ none of your business," Agni growled. She let a murderous smile play across her face as she added, "Any other stuff you're just _dying_ to know?"

Tim had assumed the girl would try to intimidate him, so he was nonplussed by the rebuke. In fact, he became even more curious. _'What's she hiding? Maybe she was some kind of government science experiment? A half-grown Shego clone? I gotta know!'  
_

"Do you maybe know this crazy evil lady Kim's always beating up named Shego?" Tim pressed, trying not to glare at her as hard as he was. He ignored his brother's startled look of protest.

Agni's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, but once the initial shock wore off, they slowly narrowed into fierce slits. Her next words were spoken through clenched teeth. "Why would you think something stupid like that, huh?"

"It _is_ stupid, right? So stupid. So stupid it's a joke, is what I mean. He's joking, he's a joker. Good joke, Tim! Ha ha…" Jim said quickly, trying desperately to defuse the situation. His next words came out rushed. "So Agni, um, where d'you go to school?"

This was apparently a stupid question to ask, and Agni turned her baleful gaze towards Jim. He took a step back at the mere sight of it.

"Yeah, 'kay, y'know what? I'm sick and tired of question-and-answer time. So how 'bout we play a _new_ game?" A disturbing grin split the girl's minty face.

Neither brother quite caught the hint, but it was Jim who smiled and nodded. "Okay, what game?"

Her hands suddenly ignited with a burning jade aura. "Tag… and I'm it."

* * *

Jim and Tim skidded to a halt within the sanctuary of their room, slamming and holding the door shut in white-knuckle terror. Both brothers were out of breath, coughing and wheezing. Wisps of vaguely greenish smoke trailed from the seat of Jim's pants. Out of breath, Tim slid down along the door to the carpet, while Jim remained standing, leaning his head against the door. Tim favored the green smoke trails with a glance.

"Hey, your butt's on fire."

Distracted, Jim responded with a halfhearted "Uh?" He looked over his shoulder at the smoking hole on his jeans before absently patting away the embers.

"That... coulda gone better," he groaned. "A _lot_ better."

Tim dismissed the statement with a hand gesture. "Well, at least we know that even if she _isn't_ evil - which I seriously doubt - she's at least completely out of her mind. Not to mention _way_ creepy."

Jim looked down at Tim in disapproval. "She's _not_ creepy, Tim! _I_ think she's pretty cool."

"Jim, she can blow stuff up with her hands. _Us_, for instance! Not to mention her skin is _green_!" Tim pleaded with Jim, trying to convince him of what seemed obvious to a rational observer.

Jim scoffed, pointing at his green t-shirt. "What's wrong with green? I _like_ green!"

"You would." Tim retorted, annoyed. His brother wasn't making any sense at all. "Why are you so obsessed, anyways?"

Jim smirked, "Isn't it obvious? She is _really_ cute."

Tim sighed and banged his head against the door, defeated. "You're an idiot, Jim."

Back in the living room, Agni smiled to herself and reclined lazily against the couch. Thinking back to the look on those Tweebs' faces as they ducked and dodged low-output energy bolts, her smile turned into a full-blown grin. She had to applaud their agility. They had managed to avoid nearly all of them, and the one exception had only been because the one with the green shirt had stopped and stared at her for some stupid reason. His vexing behavior hadn't stayed her hand, though; she had quite literally lit a fire under his ass.

In retrospect, she was mildly upset about that. Jim had been _almost_ okay, by her standards at least. He had seemed like he had honestly been trying to be friendly, though Agni was mystified as to why. It was weird as hell, but not exactly the bad kind of weird. She could also forgive his question about her school, since he probably didn't know better than to bring that _pit_ up in conversation with her.

Also, being complimented by him had felt… she wasn't sure exactly, but certainly not unpleasant. It was rare for her to be complimented on anything she did. She was usually either yelled at or ignored, never praised. It was a… different experience.

However, the other brother - Tim, that was his name - was a little brat who didn't know when to keep his big mouth shut. He had been the one Agni had aimed at more often, and she was still frustrated that she hadn't pegged him like she intended to. And that thing he had said about her Mother! Her mother was a "crazy evil lady Kim's always beating up?" Like hell she was! What audacity! What _balls_ the little jackass had, to say something like that!

_'I should have burned his eyebrows off for that. Y'know what? I think I _will_ burn his eyebrows off! It'll serve as an important lesson in freakin' manners!'_

She was about to mentally go into all the nasty things she intended to do to Timothy Possible, but her vengeful thoughts were cut off by the sound of the back door opening. Startled, Agni bolted to her feet and tried to keep herself from panicking. Seconds later, Shego stepped into the room. The woman's expression was difficult to discern for the young girl.

Her Mother wasn't frowning, which was certainly a good thing; but she wasn't smiling either, which _wasn't_ such a good thing. Agni's mind was a maelstrom of panicked thoughts and curse words as she tried desperately to figure out what degree of bad news she was about to hear. The possibility that it might have been _good_ news never once occurred to the pale girl.

_'This is it… this is where my little vacation comes to a crashing halt. Well, I tried, I guess. No one can say I didn't try…'_

Shego held her hand out. Agni reached up and reluctantly closed her hand around her mother's. She looked up at Shego with wide, troubled eyes and finally asked the question that had been eating at her for the last fifteen minutes.

"Are… are we going back? To, ah... Go City, I mean?" Her voice was hesitant. She was able to derive little comfort from her Mother's warm hand. When Shego finally nodded, her heart felt like it had crashed through a titanium floor. She didn't have the strength to protest, or even show on her face what she was feeling inside, but somehow Shego could tell.

The older woman smiled slightly and shook her head. "You've got the wrong idea, kiddo."

Agni blinked, unsure what Shego meant by that. "What do you―" She stopped when she heard the sound of heavy footfalls running down the stairs. Kim appeared in the room a few seconds later, and she was carrying a light travel pack over her shoulder. The redheaded hero grinned.

"Okay, I'm all set."

Agni blinked, completely lost as to what was going on around her. She looked up at Shego. "Uh, Mom? What's going on?"

Shego sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose before looking over in Kim's direction. "We _are_ leaving for Go City, but Kim's coming too."

Chapter 8: End

* * *

**Much MUCH love to Ffordesoon and Eoraptor for helping me get this chapter all polished up for you folks to enjoy. And Sorry for the unseemly wait. ;)**


	9. On the Open Road

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing redux: I don't own Kim Possible, Disney does, so no lawsuits or complaints Blah blah, yada yada. You know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 9: On the Open Road**

**

* * *

**

---Possible Residence: The Present---

Kim watched as a moment of uncomfortable silence stretched out between the two green-skinned individuals. The younger of the pair digested what she had just been told for well over a minute, with her brow tightly knit. Agni looked back up at Kim with her expression a perfect example of perplexity, focusing on the redhead's over-night bag before looking back up at Shego with course indignation.

"Hold up… Kim's coming _too_? What? _Why_?" She exclaimed boldly at her mother.

Not in the mood to deal with her prepubescent daughter's abrasive attitude, Shego just gave her best 'stern parent' expression, which immediately cowed the preteen. Then, in a tone that brooked no argument, she stated; "Get in the car, and then we'll explain."

The whole affair was clearly stressing the thief beyond her already infinitesimal patience and, it showed in her every word. Knowing when not to push her luck, Agni nodded obediently. She had brought nothing more than her pockets could hold anyways, so she didn't need to do much more than retrieve her newly cleaned clothes from the laundry room and change in to them. Always the one to set the pace, the girl then walked past Kim with her nose turned up and made a beeline through the front door, leaving Kim and Shego alone in the family room.

Kim smirked awkwardly and looked over in Shego's direction. "Seeing you act like a mom still throws me."

Still more than a little irritated, Shego didn't bother to come up with something witty to throw back into the redhead's face, merely settling on the ever reliable, "Bite me, Princess."

Kim wasn't sure if it going back to Go City that was putting the sable-haired woman into such a foul mood or if it was the stress brought back into her life by the sudden appearance of her daughter. As far as Kim could tell, it was likely both in equal portions, and the green thief was making no attempt to compensate for it.

'_Maybe I should tread lightly, at least for now. This is the still the same woman who constantly does her level best to roast me alive. I can't forget that. We _aren't_ friends.'_

Kim and Shego walked side-by-side as they made their way around the corner towards a very aggressive looking black- well it vaguely resembled a car. The body was long and angular, with an exposed engine jutting from the hood and green flames streaking across the sides. It didn't resemble any model Kim had ever seen, and honestly looked like it was just barely skirting, if not flaunting the line of street legal. Agni was leaning against the passenger door with her arms crossed and her apparently usual look of bald impatience marring her youthful features.

"Took ya long enough." she snorted, looking over at Kim as though it were the heroine's fault. Kim sighed and shook her head.

Shego walked over to the driver's side and pulled off her black glove, pressing her pale bare thumb over a metal plate set in place of the keyhole. Then, clearing her voice she spoke, "DeeDee, wake up."

On this cue, both the doors suddenly unlocked and the car roared to life. Actually roar was an understatement, _erupted_ was much more appropriate. The asphalt shook with the sudden cacophonous dissonance startling both Kim and Agni, the latter stumbling away from her place against the door while tightly covering her ears. Thankfully, the engine settled down into a more acceptable rumble a moment later. Both Kim and Agni shot Shego a look of undisguised displeasure, which only served to solicit a smirk from the criminal.

"You named your car DeeDee!?" Kim scoffed, still holding her ears until the ringing began to die down.

"Hey, blame Eddie. He built the bitch," the thief shrugged with arrogant dismissal. Shego was about to slide on in, but paused and added, "And your little geek squad isn't gonna be looking for you? 'Cause I am _really_ gonna be… upset… if the doofus and the nerd find out you're with me and come running."

"They are _not_ gonna-" Kim began, then stopped herself, and held back a sigh. _'I'm doing it again. I can't keep pushing Ron out of the loop like this, but… Well, I can't mention Agni but I've gotta tell him _something_. And he WILL come running if I don't tell them anything…'_

"Alright, just gimme a sec to call them up," Kim muttered, walking away for some privacy and ignoring Shego's annoyed rejoinder to make it quick.

After getting far enough away for some perceived privacy, Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and activated it. Wade appeared on the screen seconds later as usual. "Hey Kim. What's going on?"

"Hi Wade," Kim replied, trying to keep things low key, "I'm just calling to let you know that I'll be heading to Go City today. Totally non-mission stuff, but in case something comes up, um… yeah. That's where I'll be."

Wade nodded slowly, one his eyebrows quirking up, "Ooooh kay… I'll be sure to do that. Hey, does this have anything to do with that girl from yesterday?"

Kim's eyes widened and she blurted out, "What?! No! No, not related _at all_. Not in the least connected to that girl. This is an entirely not-girl related excursion. Hey, can you connect me to Ron?"

The boy genius blinked a few times, and then furrowed his brow "Uh… yeah, I'll patch you through…"

The redhead sighed and smiled, "Please and thank you."

'_The first thing I'm gonna do when I get some free time is to learn how to lie better. Okay, this is getting ridiculous… what am I thinking?! Lying is bad, and I certainly should _not_ want to be any better at it than I am! Has Shego ever lied to-'_

Her thoughts were cut off when Ron's excited face popped up on screen. "Hey, KP! I knew you were gonna change your mind about this movie."

Kim winced, this was gonna hurt, "Sorry, Ron. No change there. The thing is, I gotta go take care of some… family stuff in Go City."

'_That's not entirely untrue,'_ Kim reasoned. _'It's just_ _not _my_ family.'_

Ron's expression fell immediately, "Oh… well, that sounds… like something."

"Yeah," Kim nodded weakly. "But if something like a mission comes up you'll be the first one I call, kay?"

He seemed to accept that well enough, replying with a weak nod and somewhat lopsided smile, "Gotcha, Kim. And hey, at least Monique agreed. So, that's something. She knows how to appreciate some good wholesome violence."

Trying not to think of that as a personal shot at her, Kim returned his smile, "Glad to hear it. You too have fun, and I'll keep you posted."

A mutual goodbye later the redhead was headed back towards Shego's monster car, and trying to keep from dragging her feet while clearing her head for the task at hand, "Sorry about that. Everything's fine now."

"Finally," Agni murmured.

Shego rolled her eyes and opened the door to slide into the bucket seat. Agni pushed past Kim and got in the middle seat in the back, crossing her arms. As Kim slid in across from Shego, she reflected how odd it was that Agni conceded the passenger side to the redhead without a fight.

'_She probably just wanted her eyes on both of us at once,'_ Kim reasoned after a moment.

Agni, for her part, looked back and forth between the two of them, waiting for one or the other to say something as Shego pulled her monster car away from the curb and started off towards Middleton's main interstate artery.

After a minute of real time, or an eternity to the small girl, Agni snapped out towards the two front seat passengers; "Okay, we're in the car so what's goin on?! Someone tell me!"

Kim and Shego exchanged an apprehensive look before Kim turned her olive eyes towards the mint-hued girl. Were Shego not driving, she would have done the same.

"Okay… listen Agni, how much would you say that you hate your private school in Go?" Kim asked cautiously, having decided to gauge from Agni's reaction how she would voice her following question.

In response, the sable-haired preteen retreated inward, saying nothing. Her expression was petulent, but thoughtful as well.

"Agni?" Kim pressed after a minute, not sure how to take the twelve-year-old girl's silence.

In response, Agni looked up at her in annoyance and snorted; "Gimme a sec, okay? I'm trying to find the right word to show just _how much_ I hate it." She said in frustration. "_Loathe_, _despise_, and _nauseated_ just don't seem to cover it."

Shego smirked from the driver's seat in response to her daughter's attitude. "I'll take that as _a lot_."

Kim rolled her eyes at her rival's response before shifting the conversation back on topic. "You see, Agni," she began levelly, "Shego and I were talking, and we came up with an idea of sorts."

The green girl's brow furrowed apprehensively before looking between Kim and Shego, "Kay, what _idea_?"

"Well…" Kim began trying to find the words before Shego cut her off completely.

"What if I could enroll you in a public school around here?" She asked point blank, causing Kim to glare in annoyance at her complete lack of tact. Agni, though, couldn't help but squeak with excitement.

"What! Really?! You serious, Mom? _Thanks, thank you_!" She chirped quickly, practically hopping in her seat.

"Hold up! There's a catch…" Shego said quickly, shooting a look into thr rearview mirror and chilling Agni's sudden elation.

The sable-haired girl's bright smile faded back into apprehension and she asked, with her voice filled with caution, "What _kind_ of catch?"

Shego sighed and decided to drop the bomb, loathing the emotional fallout that would accompany it.

"You'd have to stay with Kim," Shego finally said and then braced herself for the inevitable outburst, gripping the steering wheel.

Regarding said outburst, Agni did not disappoint. First she stared blankly at the both of them, before trying to figure what she might have heard instead of Shego's statement ion the off chance she had misinterpreted the older woman's words. Eventually she realized that she must have heard correctly and that her mom wasn't joking either. That was when the dam finally burst.

"…_**WHAT**__**!?**_ _Why!_? Are you _kidding_? This has _got_ to be some kind of _joke_!"

"It's not a joke," Kim said calmly, "it's all we could think of on such short notice."

Agni turned her large emerald eyes in her mother's direction with a pleading look on her face. "But, why can't I just stay with you!? I mean, what's the fucking problem?"

Shego sighed and shook her head, wondering if it would be more appropriate to pull over the car while they have this talk. "I don't live anywhere near Middleton, for one thing," she said evenly, "but there are other issues. It's just…"

She trailed off, in no mood to go into the other complications in her life. They were between her and her mother and she planned to keep them that way.

Agni frowned and looked down at her interlocked fingers before her eyes widened and she looked up suddenly. "Hey, wait a second! Isn't… I mean… You two hate each other, right?" She looked at Shego completely perplexed. "Isn't this idea crazy? She's always trying to put you in prison, and you're always trying to break her face, but it's still okay for me to stay with her? I don't get it."

Shego smirked humorlessly. "I actually don't really get it either, but what's between Kim and me hasn't got anything to do with you."

'_And I know you'll be safer with her than anywhere else_,' she added internally.

Kim nodded, "Right now, _you're_ the one were thinking about. Consider the stuff between me and Shego as being on hold. I told you before, it doesn't matter to me who your parents are, and helping people is kind of my thing."

Shego wanted to gag when she heard that tripe, but suppressed the urge. Whenever Kim trotted out the goody-goody routine it made her skin crawl.

Ignoring the disgusted look on Shego's face, Kim added, "We have a guest room no one ever uses, and I doubt my parents would complain too much."

Still reeling from what she had just heard, Agni stared up at Kim blankly before slowly blinking. When she finally spoke her voice was quiet and subdued and her legs were kicking nervously in the confined space of the back seat, "You're serious? You'd go that far for a _complete stranger_? That's certifiable."

"No, certifiable would be to leave you to your mother's tender mercies, since I would be abandoning a minor with a known felon." Kim shot a smirk at Shego before continuing, "_However,_ there _are_ some conditions to this arrangement."

"Like?" Agni asked wondering what kind of horrible things were about to come out of the redhead's mouth.

"No fighting, no skipping school, and _especially_ no running off into the night all by yourself." Kim said in all seriousness. Agni nearly choked on her spit from surprise, searching her mother's eyes in the mirror. '_That's _it!_? That's all she wants?'_

"It's really up to you, Kiddo." Shego added, wondering what her young daughter would choose, but if she knew her as well as she thought she did, the pale thief had a pretty good idea.

"…Even _if_ I say yes," Agni finally said, crossing her small arms over her chest and chewing her lower lip, "Why are we heading back to Go City?"

"Because _technically_ your Grandma is your legal guardian, so we'd need her _permission_." Shego spat the word as though it tasted like castor oil. "Kimmie insists we keep this legal,_ for some reason_."

Kim was about to say something in defense of her plan to Shego, but the jade preteen in the backseat cut her off.

"A-and… um… if Gram says… no?" She asked, her voice squeaking slightly despite her best efforts to remain cool.

"Oh she won't." Shego said threateningly as she glared out at the open road. The tires squealed as she abruptly cut another car off. Kim grimaced and tried to shrug off the indignant honking in the background, as well as her hand clamped tightly around the door grip.

"I think if I just talk to her I could get her to agree." Kim said optimistically after catching her breath. Honestly, how hard could it be, she was sure that she could get Agni's grandparents to see reason. '_I wonder why they only seem worried about the grandmother? Maybe the grandfather is just more reasonable. That could be helpful. Well, we'll see I guess.'_

"As if." Both Agni and Shego scoffed in perfect unison. Their expressions were so similar that Kim shuddered subconsciously. It was like two Shegos. Just having one around was hard enough to deal with and now she had them in both maxi and mini.

"So," Shego finally asked, briefly looking back over her shoulder. "Do you want to?"

She smiled when she turned her head back towards the road. She knew the girl's answer already, and although the circumstances were far from ideal; they were still a step up and that was all that mattered.

In Agni's head, she carefully weighed her options as she figured them to be. On the one hand, she could simply go back to that prison of a home where no one trusted her, and that awful preppy school hell-bent on breaking her spirit and _making_ her conform. That option almost made her want to laugh out loud, in an insane way. If she stayed there eventually she'd end up burning that academy to the ground. _'Yeah, like_ that's _gonna happen.'_

Another option was her original second plan to simply run off into the night, so she'd be free to fend for herself. However, that plan left a cold tightness in her gut considering how close she'd come to getting what she really wanted this week. Honestly anything could just happen to her in that situation. Nothing was guaranteed. _'Not that I couldn't do it though.'_

And then there was _this_; she'd be going to a normal school outside of that awful city. _No_ uncles, _no_ grandparents, and she might even get to see her mother regularly, or at least occasionally. The downside of course would be living with Kim Possible, her parents, and those Tweebs. Well, Jim seemed sort of okay, and as bad as Tim was he wasn't anywhere _near_ as annoying as Uncle Hego.

Really, what other option was there?

Agni nervously looked up into Kim's two olive eyes and slowly nodded, afterwards she quickly broke the eye contact. "Y-yeah… um… I'd like to try…that." Her cheeks steadily took on a much darker green complexion as she said more words that she was largely unfamiliar with, "T- thanks, this is… uh…" She trailed off embarrassed by the teen's charity.

"No big." Kim said dismissively, before grinning. It was fun to see the girl look uncomfortable. Also seeing her actually blushing was it's own reward.

"No," Agni said looking back up at Kim, still dark-green in the face "it's big."

"Aww, how cute!" Shego teased from over in the driver's side, causing Agni to look away suddenly. The pale girl then pulled her hood almost completely over her face and hunched down before snapping, "_Shut up_, Mom!"

This caused both the thief and the heroine to burst into open laughter. Agni just snorted irritably and put on her headphones to drown out the noise of being teased by the adults.

Once the laughter died down a mile or so later, an uncomfortable silence steadily fell over the. With Agni retreating to whatever the hell she was always listening to, Kim and Shego were now left virtually alone with one another. Neither woman was sure what to say that wouldn't lead up towards some kind of argument. As far as things went, outside of arguing what did they have to say to one another? Both unconsciously reclined back in their seats and looked forward at the moving traffic, neither willing to break the stifling silence.

Shego played with the notion of turning on the radio but quickly abandoned the idea; she wasn't in the mood to have Kim get on her case about the music.

Kim for her part, grit her teeth and summoned up all of her will power before turning towards Shego and finally saying, "Well, at least Agni accepted. I was worried there for a bit."

Shego scoffed, "Of course she did, I know her better than I know myself. I wouldn't have even brought it up if it weren't a sure thing. I never do anything half-assed."

"That's for sure," Kim said darkly, eliciting a curious look from Shego.

"Something on your mind?"

Kim turned her full attention towards Shego, "You never told me why you couldn't take care of her, what's the big secret?"

Shego frowned and applied more pressure to the gas pedal. "It's not a big secret; just use your imagination, that's probably more interesting than the truth anyway."

Kim crossed her arms indignantly, "Well the truth is what I want."

"Then it sucks to be you."

"Dammit Shego! I'm going out on a limb for _your_ kid, doesn't that mean you owe me this?" She snapped.

The green thief hissed, and narrowed her eyes at the cheerleader. "Back at your house you told me you didn't want anything in return, even when I offered to pay you."

"Well, I lied. You know all about _that,_ right?"

"I've _never_ lied to you, I've never _needed_ to. You're so gullible it's painful to watch sometimes!"

"Gullible? I am _not_ gullible!"

"Were Eric the Syntho-Drone still functioning, I bet he'd say otherwise." She snapped back at Kim, smiling her usual evil smirk.

Kim just stared agape, before gritting her teeth and boiling in her own fury.

"I cannot _believe_ you just said- Wait!" Suddenly her anger drained away and she smiled back at Shego causing the older woman to wince. "Oh, you _are_ good. You changed the subject away from my question so seamlessly it's like you scripted it."

Shego sighed defeated. "So I guess you're _not_ that gullible."

Kim scratched the back of her head before looking back at Shego sheepishly. "Shego, I get that it's personal, but it's not like I would ever use it against you or anything. You know that, right?"

"Fine. Here's the deal," Shego said shaking her head, "If you can _actually_ manage to convince my black-hearted mother to let you enroll Agni at Middleton Public, then I'll tell you whatever the hell you want, OK?"

Kim just nodded, "Fine, but how do I know you'll keep up with your end?" Kim asked offhandedly.

"You don't." Shego stated with simple directness.

"Do you really think I'm naive enough to accept a deal with you without some collateral?" Kim exclaimed, insulted by the green woman's implications.

"Yes, yes I do." Shego said, trying to hide her smile for a greater impact.

"Gargh, you're so frustrating!" Kim exclaimed in exasperation. "Whatever! Convincing your mom will be a breeze anyway so it's in the bag."

"Ha!" was the only response from the driver's seat.

* * *

Both women basked in the blessed silence as they made their way across the busy freeway. Shego's overly aggressive driving had effectively cut at least three hours off their long trip, even if it meant out running several perusing police interceptors, much to Kim's outspoken dismay. Even doing something as normal as driving, Shego still found ways to break the law. At least Motor Ed knew how to put together a well-built car. A lesser machine wouldn't have survived such prolonged abuse. This time, however, neither woman was willing to hazard breaking the silence that had built up between them.

Agni sat quietly in the back seat, idly staring out the window, otherwise inside her own little world. Occasionally Kim would turn to look back at the young girl, considering the immediate future herself.

The redhead had no doubt that her parents wouldn't give Agni a second thought; in fact she actually doubted her father would even notice the pale girl at first. The man was brilliant and an attentive father in most cases, however, certain seemingly obvious things just seemed to pass right beyond his notice

Her mother might have some reservations, but honestly, she'd probably understand when the situation was explained to her. As for the Tweebs… well, who honestly knew? They'd probably just ignore the pale girl. Kim had never even seen the twins hang out with any kids from their school outside of soccer practice. Those two were simply an island unto themselves, so Agni probably would be noticed and then promptly ignored once the novelty wore off.

There was something to be said about a family that let Kim get away with such dangerous hobbies without protest.

There was also the fact that she was finally about to see Shego's home, and her parents on top of that! What kind of family could produce people like Shego and her siblings? It honestly boggled the mind, and she wondered if they would be like something out of a comic book.

She ran several theories on the family dynamic through her mind, but none of them seemed appropriate. Kim couldn't imagine how, but the mother was obviously some piece of work if what the redhead had heard from Shego and Agni wasn't too exaggerated. Still, any account from children regarding their parents was always somewhat over-the-top, at least in Kim's experience; so she doubted that it would be near as difficult a conversation as Shego implied.

At least she hoped it wouldn't be.

Her thoughts were soon cut off when Shego spoke up out of nowhere.

"Hey, Kimmie?" she asked, her expression neutral as she continued to watch the open road.

Had Kim not known better, she would have believed she had imagined the abrupt conversation starter. She blinked in surprise at Shego's sudden communication.

"Yes?"

Shego inclined her head slightly in the redhead's direction. Her expression made telling what the jade-hued woman was thinking impossible.

There was an awkward pause as Shego seemed to retreat inward, but when she finally spoke, Kim couldn't have been prepared for the pale thief's next words. "Thanks, for all this. I mean it."

She then turned away from Kim and looked out towards the highway once more.

Kim stared blankly for a moment, completely shaken, before remembering herself and finally replying, "Y-your welcome, I said it was no big."

Shego's lips tugged up at the corners ever so slightly. "No, it's big."

Chapter 9: End.  


* * *

**Author's Notes: This chapter was almost made possible by my good friend and beta-reader and occasionally co-author; Eoraptor.** **As always, thanks for turning this mess into something semi-legible. ;)**


	10. Burns Like Ice

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing redux: I don't own Kim Possible, Disney does, so no lawsuits or complaints Blah blah, yada yada. You know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 10: Burns Like Ice  


* * *

**

They had been in the car for at least six hours of barely interrupted silence, ever since Shego's unusual declaration of gratitude. Only twice had the tedium been broken since then; once at a quick stop at a truck stop for a snack and bathroom break, and the other time, fifteen minutes worth of a high speed police chase that Kim felt would be best to simply forget had ever happened.

Aside from all that, Shego had returned to her silent repose, unwilling to say anything further on the matter of thanks and stubbornly rebuking any further attempts at conversation. Her gloved fingers clenched and unclenched unconsciously around the steering wheel over and over again making stretched leather noises. While the irritating sound grated at the corner of Kim's thoughts; for her part the redhead took it in stride, not curious enough to find out what the pale villainess' reaction would be should the redhead see fit to draw attention towards her uncharacteristic behavior.

Kim finally sighed and leaned back, content to stare out the window and take in the scenery passing by around them. A repeating image of fields and towns blurred past, blending in with the background until Kim wasn't seeing anything anymore; just a Technicolor field intermingled with fuzzy shapes. Staring at such monotony for so long would normally have lulled her to sleep, but she was distracted from such rest by other items of far greater interest.

For example, what was Shego's mother like? It was always better to have a plan going in, but Kim found herself lacking a great deal of what she considered need-to-know information, and in this case she couldn't simply dial up her rotund tech-support. The heroine cast a quick look around towards her fellow passengers; Shego staring tensely at the road and Agni, hood pulled over her eyes and MP3 player blaring in her ears. Neither seemed willing to give Kim any information beyond the basic idea that shego's mom was older, and female.

However, considering all that Kim had heard, she expected a very strict domineering presence, like some stereotypical school headmistress or, crotchety old hag. Kim frowned and shook her head after digesting that image for a moment. The woman couldn't be _that_ old, maybe in her mid fifties at the oldest. Younger, if she followed Shego's pattern?

Kim filed that possibility away and shifted her train of thought towards another important, and interesting, matter. Namely; what would Shego tell her when it came time to explain why she couldn't raise her own daughter? And she_ would_ tell Kim too, that much was fact. Kim was one-hundred percent confidant that she could convince Shego's mother of what was best for Agni. As far as the cheerleader was concerned, it was only a matter of how, not if.

Kim's primary theory regarding why Shego seemed so uncomfortable with the idea of raising Agni was sketchy. Her best guess was that something, some event, had transpired eight years prior. Something bad enough for Shego to not only renounce her own daughter, but her entire family.

Earlier, before making the call to Ron, when Kim had been busy getting her travel bag assembled, she had sent a text to Wade asking the boy-genius to send her old Go City news articles from around that time, anything and everything referring to Team Go. Something big enough to make Shego decide to just up and disappear must have had _some_ media repercussions, however minor. A person, even a team could only hide so much.

Kim's train of thought was suddenly derailed when she heard a sharp hiss come from over in Shego's direction. Carefully, Kim inclined her gaze towards the green-skinned thief for some confirmation on the sudden noise. Shego's eyes were narrowed and staring forward hatefully, smoke rose from between her fingers and Kim could smell burning leather. Turning to look over in that same direction, Kim could see the famous Go City skyline slowly creeping up over the horizon.

Kim thought back on when Hego, Mego and she had roped Shego into helping them save the Wegos and stop Aviarius. The villainess had been on the edge of her seat back then as well. Kim had found Shego's attitude odd at the time, but little by little she was coming to understand that there was much more than sibling conflict occurring throughout that incident. After all, for all Kim avoided having to deal with the Tweebs, they never brought out the kind of heated anger in her that Shego's family seemed to inspire.

Comparing Shego's attitude now to the battle against Aviarius was like comparing a volcano with a camp fire. Back then it had been a simple matter of releasing her super-powered siblings. Now it was a matter of visiting with her estranged parents over the future of her daughter. Agni sat up suddenly when she noticed the approaching metropolis, and swallowed unconsciously as well. Reaching up, the dark-haired girl pulled down her hood and pulled out her ear buds, shoving the device back into the deep into the pocket of her sweatshirt. If there was one thing she was _not_ looking forward to, it was seeing her grandmother after the stunt she had pulled.

Skipping school, vandalism, fighting, and stealing from convenience stores was one thing, although she had yet to be caught for most of those. Disappearing entirely for over four days was something else entirely. She'd never done anything quite _that_ bad before, and considering how strict Roza could be for minor infractions, at least Agni considered them minor, the twelve-year-old wouldn't be surprised that the penalty for running away would mean being led before the firing squad.

Swallowing down her unease, the young girl spoke out towards Kim, surprising not only the redhead but her mother with the sudden interruption. "You're _sure_ this is gonna work? Like, no doubts? 'Cause, I mean, you've never even _met_ Gram, y'know."

Kim blinked, and before she could respond with something to ease the girl's concerns, Shego cut in.

"Don't sweat it, Kiddo. Everything will be fine." Shego stated resolutely, casting a quick look over her shoulder meeting Agni's gaze with a light smile.

"One way or another." She muttered darkly under her breath as she turned back towards the road.

"Um, let's try to do this my way. Sound like a plan?" She asked cautiously, trying to offset whatever violent thoughts her archrival might have been having with that last statement.

"Oh?" Shego asked with a sneer. "And what, pray tell, is that,Little Miss Perfect?" She scoffed and turned her nose up at Kim. "You're not the most diplomatic when dealing with Dr. D and I, after all." the thief added matter-of-factly.

Kim sputtered for a moment at a loss for words, but finally exclaimed, "Your mother isn't a super-villain bent on global domination!"

Using her method of dealing with violent criminals as the basis for this argument was simply ridiculous. If the redhead really treated her enemies the same as everyone else, she'd have laid Bonnie flat years ago.

But Shego wasn't finished. She snapped, glaring at no one in particular, "No, she's _way_ worse. I can deal with super-villains."

Kim clicked her tongue in annoyance and decided to squelch this line of reasoning altogether. "You should know that blowing things out of proportion like this doesn't make my job any easier."

Shego paused and regarded Kim for a moment. Then she smirked and shook her head contemptuously. "Who ever said this was gonna be _easy_?"

Then, before either Kim or Shego could say anything further, the diminutive third party spoke up. Worry shaded her youthful voice. "So, you don't think she can do it, Mom?"

With those words, both Shego and Kim fell completely silent. In their senseless bickering, they had lost sight of the reason they were both doing this in the first place. Their arguing probably did little to assuage Agni's concerns; if anything it only served to intensify them. Both women felt cold shame creep up in their bellies, and begrudgingly looked towards one another apologetically.

Shego took up the responsibility of speaking first. "I-I mean…" she sighed and started her clumsy sentence over. "Yes, I _do_ think Kim can do it. I'm just pissed off and talking out of my ass."

"Yeah, this sitch is a cakewalk compared the stuff I deal. No weather machines or ice fortresses here." Kim added quickly.

Agni scrutinized Kim's expression against the validity of her words for a moment. Finally, she responded with a troubled frown. "Really?"

'_No.'_

"Yes, this'll be over before you know it." Kim said with a warm smile, a total contrast to her actual feelings on the matter. She idly noticed that the distant Go City scenery was rapidly overtaking the aggressive-looking black vehicle and its occupants.

Still not entirely convinced, the young girl crossed her arms and slouched back into her seat. "Good." She muttered, and then added warningly, "'Cause you'd better live up to all that 'I can do anything' crap, or I'll tell everyone you're just a big fraud."

Shego through back her head and laughed despite herself while Kim just groaned in defeat.

'_I'm stuck in a car with the two most difficult women in the world_.'

* * *

Over the next half hour, the three women continued into the city, welcomed by the noise and sights that separated the urban realm from everything around it. Intersections were crowded by dozens of moving bodies; upscale storefronts and office buildings dominated the view in all directions. The air was thick with dozens of smells, and not all of them pleasant.

Shego was dead to it all, having been raised in the metropolis most of her childhood. For Agni, the feeling was even more blasé, as she'd only left these steel and glass confines days ago. Things certainly hadn't changed during that time. Kim, however, was always taken in by the hustle and bustle of activity in Go City whenever she came through. During their argument earlier Shego had managed to keep her mind off returning home. Kim was a good distraction regarding that discomfort. Every time she began to feel icy dread condense in her stomach, she would just remind herself of Kim sitting next to her and how ludicrous this situation was; Agni's adorable little threat directed at Kim had, in Shego's opinion, just been the icing on the cake.

However, as familiar high-rise structures began to dominate the view, Shego's relaxed attitude began to shift back towards doubt and anxiety. With every block, with every traffic light, with every skyscraper passed, Shego got closer to everything she'd happily left behind. It felt as though icicles were forming up and down her spine, cutting into her, making the thief remember days when she was considered by many to be a hero among heroes. A less than happy time for the pale woman.

Shego particularly recalled her eighteenth birthday. Everything had come to a head on that ill-omened day. It was the last time she'd seen her mother or her daughter. That day, she'd thrown everything away, cutting herself from Agni's life almost completely.

The exchange that occurred between she and Roza that night had played over and over, until it was forever seared into Shego's mind.

---Go City Central Hospital: Eight Years Ago---

Shego gazed dully forward in silence before slowly placing her black-gloved hand against the cool glass separating her from the small form on the hospital bed. Aside from the intravenous drip, the four-year-old was almost completely uninjured compared to when she had been brought in only twenty minutes earlier; she was now breathing slowly and evenly.

By tomorrow morning there would be no visible evidence she been so grievously wounded in the first place; such was the nature of Shego and her brothers' bodies. Had it been anyone else, they wouldn't even have made it to the ambulance.

The paramedics had, at first, been horrified by the searing, feverous heat radiating from the young girl as her body overtaxed itself to repair the slashes across her flesh. The oddly colored skin and deep green blood certainly didn't help matters either. Shego had to insist that that was not what they had to worry about, despite that it flew in the face of everything they'd ever been trained for.

Now though, such drama was replaced by a tense silence pervading the recovery ward. Shego stood alone and watched, never taking her eyes off the child. However, she never stepped into the room with Agni either; she didn't have the right to approach. Not after what she'd…

The eighteen-year-old heroine grit her teeth tightly, and clenched her right hand into a fist, her clawed nails slicing across the glass until they curled into her palm. It was better not to think, it was better to remain numb she decided.

Shego's left hand reached up and pulled free her black Team Go mask, the one Hego always insisted she wear. Without even looking, she crumpled the offending accessory into a tight black ball and tossed it over her shoulder. A dull thunk from behind indicated that the mask had landed squarely in the trash bin, but she didn't even notice. She just stood there waiting for the young girl to wake up. There was a very important decision that Shego needed to impart to her.

Unexpectedly, the teenager detected a silent and familiar presence enter the room. She consciously chose not to acknowledge it. A tall figure deliberately and soundlessly approached at Shego's right side, before stopping next to her and regarding the small form resting behind the glass. Shego sneered and tried to keep from noticing the woman beside her, who herself was making no attempt whatsoever to communicate, merely standing and watching in silence.

The figure in question wore a large dark brown jacket tattered with age, an untucked white blouse, black slacks and short black boots. Her jet-black hair was tied back near the bottom in a loose ponytail and, oddly enough, she wore a monocle over her right eye. Her actual age was indeterminate, but she was at least in her thirties, with a sort of aristocratic air about her.

Sneering bitterly, Shego finally looked over at the woman. "I'm surprised that _you_ decided to show up."

The woman, for her part, merely stood still and showed no indication that Shego's venomous words had reached her. After roughly thirty seconds of silence, she inclined her head in Shego's direction. Her expression was neutral and unreadable, neither smiling nor frowning. When she spoke, her voice was deeper than her face would give indication of, with a roughened quality. She pronounced each word carefully and crisply, hiding all but the barest of traces of her native tongue

"My Granddaughter has been hospitalized. Despite what you like to think, Natasha, I _do_ consider my family a priority."

"Hah! That's a laugh. You actually care about something? Anything!?" Natasha Drago growled bitterly, a smirk like a rictus grin tilting her lips. "You going to ask if she's okay, then? FYI, that's what someone who _cares_ would do."

"I don't need to." The woman replied levelly, "If she is alive, then she is clearly fine."

When Shego looked as though she was about to snap, the older woman added, "You don't honestly think I'd forget how quickly you and your brothers recover. Agni is certainly no different."

Tasha sighed bitterly and crossed her arms. "Wow Mom, I didn't realize you actually paid that much attention." "You were home at the time right? You planning to tell me how she was taken from under your Goddamn nose?" Her eyes hardened and her knuckles popped as she formed two tight fists, both threatening to explode with heat and light at any moment.

Not flinching from the harsh glare of unearthly green eyes, the taller woman answered calmly. "I don't have any excuse. One moment she was there, the next she was not. I _do_ accept full responsibility for that. However, in my defense, I had no idea she was in danger of being taken by one of you and your brother's psychopathic playmates."

Tasha growled and bared her teeth at the implication. "One way or another, what happened was your fault too." After a chilly moment, she smirked coldly. "Getting old must really dull the senses, eh **мать**?"

Ignoring the bait, Roza turned to look down at Natasha, finally giving her full attention to her daughter. The fluorescent lighting glared harshly off the monocle the older woman wore over her right eye, giving her any eerie supernatural appearance.

"Sergei told me what happened earlier tonight, with Agni and that psychopath," Roza said, her voice calm and unemotional, "In great detail."

Annoyed that Mego was trying to drag their mother into this without her approval, the birthday girl snorted and crossed her arms, glaring at Roza, "If you're gonna bitch at me about killing Bogeyman than you can save your breath. I don't regret it, not even a little."

Roza t'sked disapprovingly. "Of course I'm not. I have told you time and again that it would one day come to this. I would have done the same without hesitation. Although, I doubt I would have brought the entire building down in the process… but you always did have a flair for the dramatic."

Tasha's expression soured and she turned away, processing her mother's acquiescence. Considering the facts, she didn't for a second doubt that Roza wouldn't have killed the Bogeyman herself. The teen was certain that the woman had been involved in unsavory dealings in the past. What the raven-haired heroine _did_ doubt was that she would have gone out of her way to do so, even for her own family. Roza barely gave them the time of day, let alone any indication that she cared for them as more than a responsibility.

When she wasn't favored with a response, Roza continued. "He also says you assaulted Viktor and told him that you finally decided to quit playing cops and robbers. I admit that I was relieved to hear such a rare show of sensibility from you," she shrugged. "He begged me to convince you to reconsider, but I don't think that I will. I will say that I certainly don't approve of you striking your brother."

"I do approve, I _totally_ approve. Hego just didn't _get it,_ so I made it perfectly clear to him. I'm done with this hero bullshit and I'm finished with the whole Godforsaken city!" Her tone was quiet and level, with very little inflection, much like her mother's.

Roza caught on to what her daughter was implying almost immediately. Despite this, her reaction to the news was as minor as an eyebrow twitch. She looked down at Tasha and spoke; her words seemed to have lost a great deal of their impassiveness and now appeared tentative. "You mean that you're leaving. But somehow, I doubt you intend Agni to accompany you."

"She…" the pale-green girl looked over into the window and sighed. "I just…" She lowered her head gritting her teeth almost hard enough to crack her molars.

Suddenly she cast her mother a vicious glare, the corners of her eyes moist as she lashed out. "You were right, Goddammit! Okay?! Is that what you fucking want to hear?! You were always right! Again! I'm an awful mother, and a lousy hero and I don't have what it takes! I NEVER had what it takes! I-I… c-can't… take care of her… Not me...."

The teen clenched her eyes shut and turned away, grinding the budding tears from her eyes with her palms. Even then, the chance to let her mother see her tears was simply not acceptable, _never_ acceptable. She wouldn't give Roza the satisfaction. "The whole time you were telling me I couldn't do it, and guess what; I really can't. Congrats."

For her part, Roza's expression softened ever so slightly. But only someone familiar with her mannerisms would have noticed the difference. And at the time, Natasha was simply too distracted to even care if she had. "Why are you saying this now? Is it just because she was kidnapped from you? That is a bit extreme, Natasha, even from you."

The sable-haired teen bit her lip hard, but said nothing.

Roza's eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms regarding her daughter critically. "I see. It was it that _other_ event that happened tonight, then."

Tasha's eyes widened suddenly and she looked up at Roza. "What other… ? I already told you, I'm glad I kill-"

Roza cut her off, which was a very rare occurrence. "_Do not_ insult my intelligence. You may not be aware of this but I actually arrived at this hospital several minutes ahead of you. I got a very clear look at малютка's injuries as they were moving her to this room. Even scabbed over they were really quite familiar."

Tear-glistened emerald eyes widened in horror.

"The angle of the slashes, the shape, their proximity to one another…" She looked down at Shego's right hand. Roza then rolled up her sleeve to reveal five long thin scars surrounded by a wide burn taking up nearly the entire length of her forearm. The flesh had healed smooth and stretched taught now like worked leather.

"Unlike you and your brothers, _my_ scars remain with me forever."

Tasha's words caught in her throat when she saw what her mother was implying. The woman was a freak, and a horrible vicious bitch if there ever was one. "Y-you don't understand, wh-what h-happened back then…"

Roza casually rolled her sleeve back down over the scar, not bothering to look back up at her troublesome child. "On the contrary, I do understand. I understand _completely_." She looked up at met Shego's emerald green eyes with her own ice blue ones.

"If it had happened to me, I doubt I could face my children either." She shrugged dismissively, "In the thick of things, _unfortunate_ events are bound to occur. That is the nature of the life."

The younger woman turned away from Roza and crossed her arms, clenching her eyes tightly shut. "…She's not safe with me… hell; she's not even safe _from_ me…"

She turned to walk back into the hall for some air. The hospital interior was quickly becoming suffocating to her, the stench of antiseptic burning her nose suddenly.

"I-I've got to go." She almost bolted for the door before Roza's words stopped her dead.

"What am I to tell her?" she asked calmly, seemingly not bothered by the events.

Tasha quickly whipped around and glared daggers at the older woman before snapping out, "_You_ don't tell her shit. _I'll _talk to her when she wakes up. And then I'm gone."

Unflinching, Roza continued. "What are you going to do with yourself?"

The pale teenager scoffed in disbelief, "You care?"

"In my own way," She responded cryptically.

Beginning to feel exhausted from keeping up her defenses, Natasha lowered her head, breaking her Mother's gaze in order to collect her scattered thoughts. After a moment she shook her head. "I don't know… I'll at least keep in touch with Agni but… I just… I can't face her…"

Roza narrowed her eyes in a rare show of open disapproval. "Hmmm… I see, well _I_ certainly wont dissuade you."

With a smirk, the young woman reached for the door handle to let herself out. "I'll bet. You were probably just counting the days until I got out of your hair anyway, right?" She was about to step through but stopped when a gloved hand fell onto her right shoulder halting her progress.

"By the way, Shego," Roza said cooly, to get her wayward daughter's attention. Roza_ never_ used her alias when speaking to her. That alone was enough to stop the teen dead in her tracks.

The older woman continued when Shego looked back at her in surprise. "If you go through with this, then do not about it in half measures."

Shego's brow furrowed, not quite catching her mother's meaning, "…What are you saying?"

Roza sighed in annoyance and pulled her hand away since she no longer needed to coerce Shego's attention. Her carefully chosen words took on an icy edge, "I am saying that if you're leaving for Agni's protection, then returning would be anathema to that design, correct?" Finally catching the woman's meaning Shego's eyes widened in horror, not quite believing Roza's words.

For utter clarification, she added with a grim and harsh finality, "I'm saying that once you leave, don't come back."  


* * *

---Go City: Present---

'_Actually hearing her say it…'_ Shego frowned and chewed her lip, recalling those final parting words before she walked out of the hospital in a numbed fugue.

'_She and I never could deal with one another for long, but hearing her just tell me to piss off like that_,' She clicked her tongue in frustration. '_Dammit it hurt way more than it should've.'_

'_I shouldn't even give a shit about that but I do, and I _hate_ it.'_

Casting a quick look in Kim's direction, Shego saw her rival still taking in the city scenery. A cruel hypothetical question suddenly presented itself to the pale thief.

'_Tell me pumpkin, what would _you_ have done if that Carroll Brady mother of yours suddenly decided you just weren't worth keeping around? I think I have a good guess.'  
_  
Shego had only met Mrs. Dr. Possible two or three times in the past, but in those times she'd learned quite a few things about the nature of Kim's upbringing. '_Anne Possible and my mom are so totally opposite of one another that I wouldn't be surprised if she was my mom's bizarro doppelganger. Stranger things have happened, 'specially to _me_.'_

The sound of Agni idly clearing her throat snagged Shego's attention away from her bitter thoughts, and the road. Stealing a quick look at the young girl through the rear-view mirror, Shego's internal loathing slowly did a U-turn towards a currently much more vulnerable target; herself.

'_Am I any better?'_ She wondered, considering her past relationship with Agni in its entirety. '_Heh, hell no, if anything I'm way worse. Mom didn't disown me till I was eighteen at least.'_

She chewed her lip softly as she continued this harsh line of self-inspection. She couldn't help but wince reflexively at the memories that mental statement pointed towards. '_However_, I_ dropped out of my daughter's life when she was _four_. Not to mention other less-than-motherly actions I've taken in the past.'_

'_Let's face it, Sweetheart; this is the pot calling the kettle black. Even now, you're shifting Agni over to someone else, your worst enemy! You have no shame at all. And you have very little shame in having no shame.'_

The villainess cast the distracted hero a sideways look. Kim Possible, her enemy, had agreed to help take care of her daughter. Why? Really, being a good person only took things so far. Was she trying to prove a point to Shego? Good really was better than bad or something else just as cliché?

'_She's a young and naïve idiot raised on bad Disney movies… and I owe her big. Bigger than big. And there's no way to balance these scales either. At least, not totally.'_

She frowned deeply and slowly pulled up her car to the curb in front of an old three-story red brick edifice looming before them. The wear of its coloring and finish showed just how old this piece or architecture actually was. At least a hundred if it was a day. But it seemed well maintained despite the century's interlude.

Kim looked over the building inquisitively before raising her eyebrow in Shego's direction. "Where are-"

Shego cut the redhead off with a sharp hand gesture as she turned off the ignition slowly. It was Agni who answered Kim's unfinished question.

"Well… we're home."

Chapter 10: End

* * *

**Author's Notes: Again, much love for my beta, Eoraptor, for editing all this so promptly. Thanks man! Only one redux left! XD**

**And here is my translation of the foreign words. If they're wrong, blame Babel Fish. :P  
** **мать=Mother  
****малютка=The Baby**


	11. Confrontation

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. If you didn't know that by now… then you obviously ain't been reading this story or watching the show. _

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 11:** **Confrontation**

**

* * *

**

Kim looked over the large building, with its dark red brickwork and concrete appointments. From the general pocking of the surface, Kim guessed it was very old compared to its neighbors, probably a hold-over from when Go City had been a transportation hub at the turn of the previous century, and not a modern metropolis of steel and glass. The redhead couldn't help but wonder what growing up here must have been like. Even in this older section of the city, the building stuck out like a sore thumb against its more traditional neighbors.

The cheerleader smirked despite herself when she realized both her current companions had that in common with this antiquated building; not quite fitting in despite regal stature. Shego noticed Kim's slight grin out of the corner of her eye. It did little to soothe her already simmering irritation.

"And, what the hell do you think you're smiling at?" She asked deadpan as she reached for the door latch.

Kim looked up suddenly, and glanced over at the thief's glowering expression. _'I didn't think it was even possible, but_ _Shego's gotten even less bearable since we entered the city. Is she going to be this malicious the whole time?'_

Outwardly, though, Kim just dismissed her question with a shrug as she stepped out onto the sidewalk. The redhead stated flippantly, "Just imagining the look on your face when I get this done."

Shego sneered for a moment, but was too weary to retort with her typical snarky responses.

Agni was the last to get out of the car, looking up at her family home with all the apprehension of a prisoner being led before the firing squad. The preteen swallowed nervously and looked to her mother and Kim. '_Remember, she says she can do _anything_, and Mom's with her and she can do _more_ than anything. It'll be cool… Wow, I am _so_not__ up to this optimistic crap Kim preaches. How the hell does _she_ even buy it?!'_

Kim paused and looked at her watch, suddenly noting how late it was. The sky had darkened overhead to a dark bluish-purple, and streetlamps were now the major source of the surrounding illumination. The three had left the Possible household at around four in the afternoon, and it was now nearly eight-thirty at night. It would have been later if Shego and that armored monstrosity she called a car hadn't broken nearly ever traffic law ever conceived to get them to their destination. All things considered, Kim probably wouldn't have time to have a proper sit-down with Agni's grandmother until tomorrow morning.

'_I'd rather get this out of the way soonly, but I guess this will have to do. At least I'll finally get to meet She Who Shall Not Be Named...' _The redhead faintly rolled her eyes at her companions.

On her side of the pathway, Shego was feeling quite the opposite of her heroic companion, a feeling of foreboding filling her as she looked up at the heavy oaken door to the imposing block house. This building had been her childhood home since before she could even remember. She'd been an infant when her parents had moved to Go from the Ukraine almost twenty-five years earlier. Up until the fateful night she'd turned eighteen, this was the building she'd called home. That didn't mean she held any particular fondness for the old building. The bad memories _far_ outweighed the good.

The thief then glanced over towards where Agni stood; the preteen's hands were in the big front pockets of her hoodie to keep them from fidgeting with one another and she unconsciously chewed at her lower lip. Then she glanced down the block to a few abandoned storefronts that were not always so abandoned. She managed a weak smile at the old phtotomat store which she knew a little too well. '_Well, maybe they're not _all _bad memories.'_

She straightened up and turned to Kim, flippantly retorting, "Well, c'mon. May as well get this over with."

Kim took a step forward, but hesitated. "Um, Shego? Maybe we should get our game plan down first. Just so we're all on the same page."

Shego closed her eyes and thought about it for a moment, then looked up and crossed her arms. "What've you got in mind?"

Agni leaned against the bumper of Shego's car and crossed her arms, matching her mother's pose and expression.

Kim thought on this for a moment, not because she had given it no consideration before, but because she didn't want the super-powered pair to think that, "Well… at the very least, I think you should leave most of the talking to me. Last thing either of us wants is a messy drama."

Shego barked out a quick bemused laugh.

"Nuh uh. No way in hell. I am _not_ just gonna smile and sit in the corner like a good little girl. Even if that's what I _wanted_ to do…" She held up her index finger knowingly, "You don't know my mother like I do."

"Yeah, Gram is… _really_ scary," Agni added, frowning and considering the front of her hoody uncertainly.

Kim sighed and moved a stray lock of hair behind her ear. "No offence but… neither of you are exactly the most… friendly people I know."

Shego craned an eyebrow, while Agni just turned her nose up at Kim. "What's that supposed to mean, Princess?"

"Look," Kim said in her firmest 'laying down the law' voice, "You're going in there looking for a fight, and that's the last thing that's gonna help your cause. Just leave the diplomacy to me and everything will be spankin', _okay_?"

Shego looked Kim in the eye; each matching the other in willpower as they tried to stare one another down. But after a night of panicking, and a day of arguing and driving, Shego was the first to fold, looking away with a frown.

"Whatever. Let's just go inside," She tsked, "God I hope Hego's working late at the Toxic Taco."

"Bueno Nacho," Kim corrected automatically, just as she did Shego's nicknames for Ron. She started for the door in earnest.

Agni tensed slightly and pushed off where she was leaning against the car, walking beside Kim as they made their way up the path towards the door.

Kim looked down at the young girl and noticed her growing apprehension. The redhead smiled reassuringly down at Agni and placed what she hoped was a comforting hand on her shoulder. Agni would never admit it, but she was able to find more comfort in that gesture than she'd normally have liked. The pre-teen blushed and turned away, but this time didn't shrug off the hand.

Walking a few steps behind the two, Shego pretended that she didn't notice the closeness between her daughter and arch rival, and further pretended that she didn't feel the twisted stirrings of jealousy that the sight brought up. Instead she opted to focus on grudgingly putting one foot in front of the other as she approached the door. It was barely eight feet away but each step forward felt like a mile.

Distracted by a stray thought, the thief paused suddenly and spoke in a strangely subdued tone of voice, causing the redhead to stop as well. "Um… yeah, by the way… it's Tasha."

Kim blinked and looked around in confusion, "Who's Tasha? Your mother?"

Shego flashed Kim a look of overt annoyance, and furrowed her brow. "No, genius! _I'm_ Tasha! That's y'know, my real _name_! God you're quick."

Agni covered her mouth to hold in a snicker, while Kim just stared as her mind processed the admission. "Tasha…? Seriously? Wow, I just… I never would have guessed it'd be something like that."

"Why? What's wrong with it?" Shego demanded warily.

Kim backed up unconsciously holding up both hands.

"Nothing! It's just…" she took a moment to carefully consider her next words, "I guess I just thought that your real name would sound more like 'Shego' …or something. At leash starting with a 'Sh' or… y'know."

For almost a minute Shego stared blankly at Kim, her brain having ground to a halt at the statement. Meanwhile Agni, who couldn't restrain her snickering any longer, now held her sides as she laughed out loud, her anxiousness temporarily forgotten.

Shego's face twitched slightly, and then a sound like a gasp mixed with a cough escaped her. She tried her best to regain her straight face but after another quick sputter the thief finally joined her daughter in uncontained laughter at the redhead's expense.

Kim blushed intensely and looked down at the cement beneath her shoes.

"She _thought_-," Shego barely managed to say between laughs, "she actually _thought_-"

"I know, right?" Agni added, finally beginning to settle down and wipe a few stray tears from her eyes. "Come On…!"

"Tell me, Pumpkin," Shego finally managed, disguising her wicked grin with the gesture, "what good is an alias if it sounds just like your real name?"

"_Whatever_!" Kim stammered, trying to recollect the fragments of her damaged pride. "Why even bring it up?

"'Cause if we're gonna go in and see my parents, then it'll likely come up and I didn't want you to make an ass of yourself in front of them." She smirked derisively, thinking on her words for a moment before adding, "sort of like you're doing now."

"M- make an ass of myself?!" Kim sputtered.

'_Oh you _so_ asked for it!'_

She threw a glare Shego's way, and before the older woman could respond, Kim marched past her and walked right up to the door, rapping hard along its surface and causing both Drago women to visibly pale. This was quite an accomplishment in and of itself.

'_Laughing at me like that… it was an honest mistake for gosh sakes!' _Kim mentally growled as she glared at the door in front of her.

Slowly the brass-clad wooden portal opened, and Kim couldn't help but feel her breath catch in her throat, completely unprepared and knowing it. When the door widened about a foot, a head that Kim didn't recognize peeked out and looked down at her in confusion.

The man looked to middle-aged with spiky salt-and-pepper hair, flowing down into a scruffy beard. His eyes were large and expressive with dark, nearly black irises. If Kim were hard pressed to place his age, she'd have guessed somewhere in his fifties or early sixties. The way his face was so heavily lined, and the dark bags beneath his eyes added a great deal to the age he appeared in her mind. When the door opened more, it became clear he was in a button up navy blue dress shirt and black slacks. They were neatly, crisply prepared, but even on his gaunt body, the angles of the pressing seemed to soften into something less harsh than they should.

'_If I had to guess, this must be the Grandpa. Okay, time to get my game face on.'_

Kim pulled off her trademark million-dollar smile for the gentleman. In most situations, this smile mixed with her youthful beauty had managed to win over even the gruffest and roughest people around, "Hello. My name is Kim Possible. I'm…"

The heroine trailed off when she noticed that the man's attention wasn't even on her. He was craning his head over her, and looking directly at where Agni stood on the sidewalk. The pre-teen was looking up at the older man with some uneasiness.

Without preamble the man shoved past Kim, nearly sending her ass-over-teakettle and ran down the stairs, practically tackling the twelve-year-old in a bear hug while sobbing uncontrollably. Shego merely looked down at the display and curled her lip in distaste. _'Nothing changes.'_

"[Oh, Agni my little kitten! I was so _so_ worried about you! I stayed up all night fretting, oh but look at you; you've grown so big! Did you eat well? Why did you disappear like that? I was so worried, what am I to do with you!]"

'That's_ Shego's dad!? No, no way! I _refuse_ to believe that that's the man who raised Shego!' _The redhead boggled at the coddling man.

Kim was so stunned by the embarrassing display that she didn't immediately recognize that the words the man was blathering franticly as he hugged and cried onto the apparently _very_ uncomfortable and struggling tweenager. Drawing on her vast experience, Kim quickly discerned that the tongue in question was likely Russian or some similar Slavic tongue. The heroine wasn't as confident in that particular language set as some others, but if she paid close attention she could manage the gist of it.

He went on like that nonstop at about five words per second, as he sobbed into Agni's shoulder. The young girl looked like she wanted to crawl out of her skin. '_And I thought Bonnie's mom was bad! I'm embarrassed just _watching_ this! And what does he mean she's 'gotten so big', she's been gone for four days! _

As he held on tightly, Kim could see very clear similarities in the man's build with Mego, both were tall and lanky with long faces. But his hair was closer to being like Hego's, short and dark.

Kim was surprised to hear that Agni's desperate pleadings for her release were similarly in fluent Russian as the pale girl tugged and pulled, making every attempt at freeing herself. Well every attempt save the super-powered kind. But judging from the expression on her face, Kim estimated that would change soon enough.

"[I'm fine, Grandpa so leggo! Stop hugging me! You're embarrassing me in front of people, dammit! LET. ME. _GO_!]" Finally with one final push the struggling twelve year-old sprung from her Grandfather's grasp and backed off, panting and glaring daggers over at him. He looked back up at her with big weepy eyes and seemed like he was about to go in for another hug, but he was distracted by Shego clearing her throat.

"Hi Dad." Shego stated dryly, looking down at her father. During that whole display she'd been too disgust to say anything, even though she had come to expect such behavior from that blubbering weakling.

Startled by the familiar voice, Shego's apparent father looked up at the thief in a stupor before his eyes once again began to overflow with tears.

"Natasha!" He lunged forward, probably with intension of giving Shego a similar treatment to Agni's. Shego, however, easily sidestepped him and held up a smoking finger in warning.

"A-buh-buh-buh!, No hugs! I _don't_ do hugs! Don't think I won't set your tacky beard on fire if you try!" She growled threateningly, and Kim noted, with a hint of panic.

Shego's father frowned in protest. This time he spoke in English, but Kim almost preferred that he didn't. His accent was so thick she could barely understand a word of it. "But Natasha child, Papa has no seen you so _so_ long, vhy you must to be so cruel? Give Papa big hug!"

Shego recoiled, and glanced at Kim pleadingly. Catching the hint, Kim stepped forward so she was once again in front of the man. Finally noticing her, Shego's lanky father scrutinized her curiously.

Kim wasn't surprised that this man didn't recognize her; he didn't seem to be the type to get out much. The redhead flashed her smile again, although not quite as brightly as before. "Hello, Mr… um," '_Uh oh, what's his last name? I got her first name but what's her last name?! I can't just call him Agni's Grandpa all night!' _

To Kim's relief, Shego came to her aid, hissing the name into her ear. Of course, she did so with a thick, artificial accent, giving the name a sinister air and causing Kim to suppress a shiver, "Drago."

"Mr. Drago, my name is Kim Possible, and I-"

Mr. Drago interrupted her suddenly. "Are you da vun who help bring my little коshкahome again?"

Kim blinked, but responded honestly, "Yes, I-"

The redhead almost fell backwards when she was met with similar treatment as Agni. She almost completely lost her balance when she was hit with his surprisingly strong bear hug for such a slender man.

"Oh thank you, thank you, vunderful girl, I cannot show how happy you make me! I get you reward, da? Vhatever want!"

"I- I don't need a reward thanks!" Kim said trying to figure the best way for her to slide out of his grasp gracefully. Well, the best way that didn't include knocking him unconscious. Being so tightly embraced by a complete stranger was certainly not the most comforting experience in Kim's seventeen years. And it didn't help that she was starting to have trouble breathing. "I just need to talk to you and your wife is all!"

Long past the point of fed up, Shego stomped forward and grabbed her father roughly by the shoulder, prying the two of them apart much to Kim's unexpressed relief.

"Dad, you moron! Lay off for God's sake!" Shego fumed, pursing her lips, "Just get Mom! I need to talk to her, get it?"

"No need," Said a hoarse, yet smooth and commanding voice from directly behind where Kim stood. With a start, the redhead whipped around and was faced with another new figure. All eyes were instantly turned towards the direction of the voice.

Standing in the doorway as though she'd been there the entire time was a tall and very imposing woman. Entering into instant crisis-management mode, Kim instantly took in everything she could about the new presence, not even knowing why she'd slipped into that frame of mind.

Unlike Mr. Drago, this woman's age was very difficult to get a fix on. Her face was almost completely free of wrinkles of any kind, and any expression to boot. But at the same time her bangs were nearly white with age with white streaks led down her otherwise ink-black mane of hair, which was tied over her right shoulder in a loose but long ponytail. Positioned over the woman's right eye was a monocle, which caught the lamplight in such a way as to appear almost as though it were glowing with some internal light. She wore a well-worn brown coat reaching down to mid-thigh, with a black turtleneck beneath. Beyond that she wore dark slacks with short black boots that seemed made for horseriding, or some other command over lesser beings.

She was tall, nearly reaching six feet in height with broad shoulders made all the more severe by the coat she wore. Despite this, from the way the turtleneck hugged her she also appeared lithe and slim. There were traces of Shego all over this woman from the build to the hair and especially to the face. Other elements were present of Shego's siblings but none so much as Shego, than Tasha herself.

Kim couldn't help but note that accompanying her appearance, the temperature out on the street seemed to have dropped by at least five degrees.

Beside her, Shego met the woman's cold sapphire gaze with burning emerald, her fists dripping stray green sparks that left black streaks where they hit the concrete. She asked, her voice dripping acid and her eyes looking the older woman up and down, "Hey Mom, how's it hangin'?"

Agni suddenly found her sneakers to be far more interesting than the goings on around her, as she slowly inched behind Kim and her mother.

Stepping past Kim, whom was summarily ignored, Shego's mother turned her attention to Agni. The preteen hazarded a look up into the women's cold gaze, winced and looked away.

"Your room, Agni, now." Her voice was calm and even, but regardless, Agni all but 'eeped,' and barely risking a glance towards her mother, she bolted inside without another word.

Shego looked about to explode, mostly at being ignored, but it was her father who spoke first. His words were even clumsier than earlier. "Um, D-dear, Tasha iz home, you're glad, d-da?" Apparently even Mr. Drago, obsequious as he was, seemed able to recognize a volatile situation when he saw one.

Mrs. Drago turned her gaze to her husband for a moment. She asked plainly, "Dmitri, would you please go inside and see to it that Agni gets something to eat?"

Sparing a glance between Shego and his wife with concern, Dmitri nodded once and followed the pale girl indoors. Mrs. Drago then looked back over to where Shego stood.

"You're late," she stated calmly, in sharp contrast to Shego's current literally smoldering mood, "You told me last night that you would be bringing Agni back some time this morning."

"That so? I don't recall," Shego smirked coldly. She stated in mock consideration, "Senility can be a bitch, huh Mom? You're hearing things now?"

'_This is not going well! I gotta say something, like, _now!' Kim thought in a flurry of concern.

"Um, Mrs. Drago?" Kim said hoping to draw attention away from this confrontation. It worked, to her sudden horror.

Mrs. Drago turned her monocular gaze on Kim, and the young woman fought the urge to take a step back. This woman_ was_ scary, particularly the way she seemed to be looking through Kim rather than at her. It was like she was silently being judged, and found wanting.

Despite this, Kim called on all of her confidence and stood tall, matching the older woman's gaze with a smile. "Mrs. Drago, I'm-"

"Kim Possible. It would be remarkably difficult for someone to be ignorant of you and your… activities." She stated drearily. "Considering all of the times you've kept people," she glance in Shego's direction, "like my daughter from dooming the world to chaos, I suppose I owe you my gratitude."

Shego crossed her arms, and through an act of supreme willpower, refrained from speaking out after Kim shot her a look.

Kim wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. Was Mrs. Drago thanking her? It didn't seem the case considering the older woman sounded as impassive as earlier. "No big, just trying to do the right thing."

"Commendable. Let's continue this indoors." She didn't wait for a response as she turned and made her way inside.

"Scary…" Kim muttered under her breath. The redhead dealt with maniacs trying to take over the planet on an almost daily basis, but this woman still managed to give her the heeby jeebys.

Shego moved closer to Kim and added self-righteously, "Told yah she's a monster."

The redhead glared at Shego before following the thief indoors, "…so not helping."

* * *

The interior of the Drago household was arranged along the same lines as the exterior, antiquated but very well maintained. However, unlike most old buildings Kim had visited in the past, this home thankfully lacked the dank smell of aging plaster and accumulated dust. A closet to Kim's left and a coat rack to her right framed the entryway leading from the entryway. Despite its many hooks, the brown coat Mrs. Drago had been wearing not a minute ago was the rack's lone occupant. The walls were all painted white gypsum and the rooms were well lit, revealing the spaciousness within the home.

Kim proceeded forward uncertainly, looking around for where their apparent host had disappeared. When she could find no sign as to what direction Mrs. Drago had gone in, she turned and looked back towards her green-skinned companion.

Shego didn't seem to be quite all-there from what Kim could tell by the distant look in the thief's eyes. The villainess' gaze seemed to be wandering the length of the hallway, taking little details in. Turning her attention to one of the hallway walls, Kim could hear Shego mumble under her breath, "They finally changed that wainscoting…"

Since the comment had been directed to no one in particular, Kim opted not to respond to it. The thief's semi-dazed expression further served to drive home the revelation of how long it had been since Shego returned home. Kim tried her best to imagine a similar scenario from her own point-of-view, disappearing from home for eight years, no visits, no correspondence, and then returning out of the blue.

She couldn't do it; the idea was simply too alien.

Shego slowly brought her attention away from a peach vase along the far wall and turned her gaze back to Kim. Noticing that she was the object of the redhead's current attention, Shego clicked her tongue and pushed past both the girl and her own trepedation.

"What the hell're you staring at? C'mon, the hell-bitch is waiting."

Kim caught up and walked parallel with the raven-haired woman, sniffing with indignation. "I've never been here before, remember? How am I supposed to know where she went?"

Shego took a second to consider this, but dismissed it as irrelevant. "Still doesn't mean you can just gawk at me. Freakin' creepy."

Kim ignored that last jab with a shake of her head, and instead pushed forward and in front of Shego; blocking the pale woman's progress. "Shego, listen, could you maybe let me talk to you mom alone for now?"

Shego stared down at the redhead as though she had just sprouted a third nostril. "What? Hell no! You lost your mind!?"

Undeterred, Kim pushed the issue further, Looking Shego dead in the eye. "I need to present my case objectively, and I can't do that if I have to keep worrying about you every five seconds."

Shego's gaze narrowed. "Forget it! There no way that I'm going to just leave it all to you with a smile and a prayer. No way, no how."

Kim grit her teeth, and stated firmly. "Stop being so damn stubborn! If you want my help than we do this _my_ way, no arguments."

Shego's fists curled tightly, but her tone seemed less confrontational than before. Finally, she supplied tiredly and cryptically, "You don't know her like I do."

Kim nodded, "Yeah, and that's the point. I need to be objective about this, if for nothing else so I can figure out a strategy."

She then smiled, "Then I'll have won our bet and you're going to tell me all about why you left and any other little thing that pops into my head."

"You're so damn confident all the time. It's _really_ annoying." Shego couldn't help but smile slightly Confidence was what she needed right now.

Kim shrugged modestly, "Duh! Remember? I-"

"Can do anything, yeah yeah, way to beat a dead horse." She turned back to walk the opposite way, conceding to Kim's request. "Mom's probably in the dining room, go straight and you can't miss it." She started to walk away, speaking without breaking stride, "I'll be upstairs checking on Agni. You'd better come up and tell me how it goes! I am _so_ not kidding." Green smoke trailed off her hand to further her point as she trudged away from the redhead.

Before the cheerleader could respond, Shego disappeared around the corner soundlessly.

'_Well that went… smoothly,' _Kim thought in turned and walked forward, her destination set, '_I'll let her sit with me tomorrow if she behaves tonight. Okay that sounded weird…__'_

The dining room was a great deal like Kim expected, which was a nice change of pace for the evening. The interior was very spacious, despite being mostly dominated by a large ovular oak dinner table. There was a door at the far end of the room that likely led into the kitchen and there were eight chairs situated evenly around the table.

'_Two for the parents, five for the children, and one for Agni', _Kim reasoned. The fact that there was still a place for Shego was not lost to the redhead, even if she couldn't identify which chair belonged to the theif.

As Shego had predicted, Mrs. Drago sat at the far end of the table. Without her jacket on, her appearance was far less aggressive. She still possessed a fierce air about; her but nowhere near as the militant appearance she'd had earlier. The graying woman's elbows were on the table, with her fingers steepled, partially obscuring her face. A small teacup on a saucer was positioned in front of her; its contents gradually giving off a rising steam. Two other places were set on the opposite end of the oblong table, with a teakettle in the dead center of the table. Mr. Drago was nowhere in sight.

Mrs. Drago met Kim's gaze dispassionately before making a gesture towards one of the two set places. "Please have a seat, Miss Possible." When she noticed Kim's roving eyes, the older woman added, "My husband apologizes but he's opted to spend the remainder of the evening in his study. I've set a place for you so that we can talk alone for now."

Kim nodded, took up the tea set from the set place, and pulled out the chair that put her closest to Mrs. Drago. Smiling, she added politely, "Thank you, and please, call me Kim."

Mrs. Drago turned her attention to her own cup, briefly taking a sip before looking back to Kim. "I'd rather continue to refer to you as Miss Possible," she responded levelly, "Anything else would be inappropriate."

"Um… if you insist," Kim responded uncertainly. '_Is she a Vulcan? How did a woman like this end up with a man like Shego's dad? They're like night and day! On top of that, she hasn't even asked where Shego went…'_

As if she could read the heroine's mind, Mrs. Drago asked almost rhetorically, "Shego went upstairs I presume?"

Doing an excellent job restraining any visible misgivings, Kim answered honestly, "Yeah, she said she was going to check up on Agni."

"I see," she paused to take another sip, and Kim took this opportunity to try her own tea.

She wasn't much of a tea drinker herself, but Monique was so Kim tended to have some whenever she visited her best girlfriend's home. This particular brew, Kim found, was mint flavored, powerfully so. The warm liquid did quite a bit to help settle some of her growing apprehension, not to mention cool her throat after the day spent riding in shego's ethanol fueled main battle tank with the two living furnaces.

After a moment of silence, Mrs. Drago, set her cup back down on the saucer, and turned her attention fully on the redhead. Her gaze bore into Kim like two drill bits. That strange prismatic lens she wore over her right eye only worsened the effect.

'_Why is she even wearing that thing?'_ If she looked hard enough, Kim could see a fine faded line of scar tissue running the length of the graying woman's right cheekbone beneath the eye.

"I feel I owe you an apology. It seems that my family has developed quite the habit of causing you grief, Miss Possible."

Kim blinked suddenly, as an apology was the last thing she expected to leave that woman's lips. '_Well Shego doesn't make my life easy, in fact things have been mega-complicated over the last few days, but that's all part of the job.' _

"It's no big, really." Was what came out of her mouth.

The woman's eyebrow raised barely a millimeter, but that aside, her expression remained the same. She steepled her fingers together again in front of herself as she spoke. "My daughter has, many times over, assisted that blue psychopath in however many depraved schemes? On top of that, last year you, Shego and two of my other sons helped rescue my youngest children from that disgusting bird-fetishist; only to have her turn on you moments later. I even understand that the little children's meal toy Hego brought home not four months ago, which later morphed into a fifteen-foot-tall death machine, was partially her doing as well. And you tell me that this wasn't 'big' as you put it?"

Kim couldn't help but frown at that. The woman across from her hadn't changed her tone once, but that still sounded harsh. "If I wasn't ready for things like that, then I'd never gotten into this work in the first place."

"Including aiding my… escapist Granddaughter?" She asked with a vague hint of curiosity.

'_Well I'd be lying if I said I was ready for _that,_ but no reason to let her know that.' _"It was fine, Agni is… interesting company" Kim countered, undaunted.

"I'm sure of that. Especially considering that she seems to have modeled her life very closely after her mother's. Poor judgment seems to run very strongly in my family."

Kim raised an eyebrow at that, '_The way she said that, it was like she was talking about herself as well. I wonder what that means…'_

"I must thank you for that. You assisted in returning Agni to my care and she seems to be in good health, considering what I gather was her adventure. Is there anything I can do to reciprocate this act of good will?"

Kim was sure this time that the woman in front of her was leading to something. Did she suspect Kim's true motives somehow? Was that even possible?

"Well, actually…" Kim trailed off to consider the best way to begin her argument.

'_I may as well just get to the point; this is like ripping off a Band-Aid, better to do it quickly than drag it out.'_

"I know you're not here simply to return my granddaughter. Shego could have done that without your assistance." Mrs. Drago said suddenly, her pale eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

Kim's eyes widened, '_Okay, so she's psychic, or at least close enough, but that's no reason to get riled. Just roll with it.' _"Your right, I was hoping to have a word with you about Agni's future." She waited for Mrs. Drago's reaction. As expected, it was underwhelming, merely a slight twitch of her right eyebrow.

"I concluded as much on my own." She stated factually. Then, suddenly she pushed back on her chair and stood, picking up her saucer with which sat her now empty cup. "However, for conversations of that variety, I would rather we wait until morning."

She walked around a somewhat vexed Kim and picked up the other untouched cup and saucer. The redhead frowned but nodded. '_I suppose that's best but…'_

"I'll prepare a guest room for you." Mrs. Drago added, before disappearing in the direction of the kitchen and leaving the cheerleader alone with her thoughts.

Kim visibly deflated and looked down into her still mostly full teacup. '_Okay, not a smooth as I'd like, but at least I met her. This little sit-down wasn't to talk either. She was scoping me out. Just like I was scoping _her_ out. Now, though, I've got plenty of time to figure out a way to tackle this.' _

Kim smiled humorlessly. She sighed and took a deep sip of the still warm tea, and savored the flavor for a moment to clear her head. '_I'll just pretend she's a Bebe. She's close enough. Jeez, couldn't she at least frown or something? Any expression at all would have been nice.' _

'_At least there shouldn't be any major drama from here on out.'_

_

* * *

_

It was a dark, intensely quiet place where Benjamin Zachary Crater had spent the last ten years of his life. Back out in the world BZ was a man to be feared and respected. His name used to send chills down the spines of brave men, and left the cowardly wetting their drawers in abject horror. He had fame, he had influence, but above all he had their fear. Now though, he had nothing, less than nothing in fact.

He so missed those golden times.

These days, his world consisted of a twelve-by-twelve metal cell, guarded on all sides by high-power automated turrets, and blocked off on each side by a series of force fields. The only proof he had that there was still a world out their beyond those chrome walls was the tiny joke of a window from which currently spilled forth thin rays of moonlight. His only companion was the enormous shadow he cast on the far wall sharing the solitude.

Benjamin had a lifetime more of this to look forward to, all thanks to… _Her_.

A wide pearly white grin slid across the man's dark hardened features. He was always in a good mood when he thought of that harpy. The one who robbed him of his dignity and left him little more than a bloody stain on the ground. He reached up with his huge right hand and lightly ran his fingers down over the thin diagonal ridges leading from his right temple across his entire face to the left crook of his jaw. There were five scars in all, which had only barely missed his eyes, so severe were they; BZ thought they gave his face character. It was too bad that there was barely anyone around to appreciate them.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew BZ's gaze up and back towards the shadow he was casting in the moonlight. It was strange; he shouldn't look that thin even in profile, not after all the exercises he ran through every day to fill the time. His torso was over four feet across carved in muscle tissue, not some thin crooked streak such as the far wall currently displayed. He was also wearing a gray prison-standard jumpsuit, not some shredded up cloak. But the penumbra, which had displaced his familiar and very recognizable silhouette remained, even after he rubbed his eyes.

It meant one of two things; either he had completely lost what little of his mind remained, or BZ wasn't alone in the hole

"My oh my, Mr. Crater." The shadow apparently spoke. It did so in a harsh and clear metallic hiss. The form spoke with a tone more appropriate to come from a parent chastising a child despite the shrill sound, "What a disappointment it is to see a fellow artist in such a _debilitated_ state as this. Locked away in a kennel for beaten dogs. Forgotten, but _certainly_ not gone."

BZ scoffed openly, deciding that he would humor this apparition, or hallucination. Crossing his thick corded arms over his chest, the dark man turned his nose up at the shadow and scoffed, "Artist? You fuckin' kiddin' me? You know who yer talkin' to, Slim? Ain't no goddamn _artist_ here."

The shadow spread its arms and responded in barely restrained jubilation, "_Au contraire_, Mr. Crater, I see someone with _impeccable_ artistic sensibilities. The Billion-Bomb Panic, The Millennium Night of Mayhem, The Go City Bridge Job; where you joined forces with Electronique and Dyno-Saur, and took control of the traffic system. All of these were _beautifully_ crafted pieces."

With each crime listed, the implausible silhouette raised a finger on his right hand. Each digit seemed to end in a wicked hooked claw. He then smirked and curled his claws back into a tight fist, still acting entirely in silhouette. "Were it not for five children in clown-suits, you would have gone down as one of the best villains Go City had _ever_ known."

"I got screwed durin' every one o' dem '_pieces_' you're talkin bout, fool," Benjamin mocked with casual disregard. It was as though such failures no longer even registered within him.

"Yes," agreed the specter, "but why was that? Who was responsible for your fall from the top? Was it that muscle-bound simpleton? The self-absorbed purple twit? Those red twins by the dozens?"

The malformed shadow laughed lightly, "Who would you blame for your remarkably _embarrassing_ failures?"

Smiling despite his best attempts at keeping a level expression, BZ ran his fingers down along the many rigid scars lining his face. "Heh, mah baby girl, dat's who."

The specter nodded exaggeratedly, "Ahh, yes. I recall now, you ended up here _not_ because of your more magnificent schemes, but because you made a fool's mistake. You actually attacked a sixteen-year-old girl while she sat in her high school cafeteria. All in order to enact your petty revenge. And for all your trouble you were not only thwarted, but also_ thrashed_, _burned_, _shredded_, and left a charcoaled _mess_ for the local authorities to mop up."

The animated penumbra made a weak gesture towards BZ's mangled features, "If I am not misinformed, she even branded you in that final exchange."

Throwing back his head, the enormous dark complected man laughed out loud, slapping his knee, "_Hell_ yeah, it's why I'm so pretty."

When his amusement had died down some, he lowered his thick brow discerningly and inspected the shadow with new caution. "So… who da hell're you anyway, Slim? I finally fall down dat rabbit hole, er what?

The lanky silhouette tsked in annoyance. "Hardly. I'm merely someone with similar grievances towards our mutual nemesis."

BZ raised an eyebrow curiously. "Last I heard, she was battin' for the winnin' team." He frowned and shrugged his enormous shoulders. "It's freakin' retarded for bad guys to go after other bad guys. 'n I don't play dat way no more. Couldn't even if I wanted to..."

Even without any visible expression, the lanky shade seemed to momentarily bristle. "You honestly feel no animosity for our lady in green?"

Benjamin cracked his thick knuckles and leaned back on his bunk with his eyes closed in thought. "Nah," His lips then split into a lecherous amoral grin before he added, "'sides, I hear tell she grew into one _Grade A_ piece o' ass, heh heh…"

The shadow recoiled slightly. "Disgusting." Requiring his bearings it then added coldly, "Regardless, I want to make a deal with you, Mr. Crater."

The animated shadow then crossed his rail-thin arms and spoke the next few words very pointedly. "How would you feel about killing a fellow villain, if the payment was the complete return of your freedom and power? Your… Reputation?"

The dark man's cocky grin suddenly fell away, and he opened his eyes glaring back towards his impromptu spectral visitor. He said nothing; but simply watched and waited for the nightmarish figure to speak his piece.

Taking this as its cue to continue, the shadow set its terms, "I will give you the means of freeing yourself from this titanium purgatory. But in return, your assignment should be most obvious."

Benjamin sat up suddenly and glared back at the miasma, trying his best to figure out the specter's game. Was this some trick? Why after ten goddamn years of solitary confinement, ten years of nothing but dark corners and twisted memories to fill the silence? Why _now_, after his rage had long grown cold, was he given this chance? Because, it was a trick, a trick or a figment of BZ's own warped psyche. "No deal man. The last time I got my ass kicked but good, this time, I'm libel to get my ass _killed_."

"You would rot here forever?" the shadow asked skeptically.

"I ain't suicidal!" the inmate snapped, finally standing up for the first time since the miasma had made itself known, all eight feet of his colossal height towering over the villainous penumbra. He stood before the shadow, which barely came up to his collarbone on the opposite wall, his meaty fists ready to put a sizable dent in the wall despite how ludicrous that idea sounded even in his own mind. "And I hear she's even more of a badass now than then. The green bitch is tryin' to rule the world fo' fuck's sake! So get the fuck out o' my face 'fore I-"

"What if I could secure you the means of absolute victory?" The jarring voice asked with mock innocence as it glanced up towards Benjamin's beady black eyes in its shadowy way.

BZ snorted like an enraged bull, and lowered his head so he was eye-to-where-eyes-should-be with the living darkness. "Then we'd finally be talkin' business, but you _can't_, you punk shadow, so vacate my space. _Comprende_?"

For a moment the shadow regarded BZ silently, but then turned his 'gaze' towards the man's clenched left hand. Following suit, BZ looked over at his tight fist and saw clenched between the fingers, as though it had been there the entire time, was a Polaroid photo. Letting go as though he held an unpinned grenade, Benjamin Crater whipped back around towards the wall, about to demand how the shadow had emplaced the crumpled photo within his grip.

But the only shadow that greeted him was his own herculean silhouette. Before he could even question these events, every armored wall reverberated with a final clear message, forcing BZ to cover his ears in pain and wonder how it was possible that the guards still had yet to notice this cacophony.

"_**There, within that photo, is the means of your assured conquest, and now with you I leave this little… **_**token**_** of my thanks. Do with these offerings whatever you please."**_

Spinning quickly around within his cell, BZ was greeted with the sweetest sight he had seen in ten long lonely years. The way the moonlight danced over the darkness's parting gift made the massive man's heart swell and his hands tremble.

On the floor of his cell, arranged neatly and orderly, was his masterwork. The powercells along the gauntlets hummed with full energy, and the stylized golden 'BZ' emblem on the chest crackled with stray sparks of power. With reverent careful hands, Benjamin reached forward and grasped the facemask belonging to the helmet, running his rough scarred and calloused fingers along its unnaturally warm surface.

Unable to hold back any longer, he slid his forearm securely within the confines of one metal glove. The material recognized its master almost immediately and tightened over his skin, sending nano-threads into his pores and locking into his nervous system with a tingle reminiscent of having his arm fall asleep. When the connection was complete, brilliant circuit patterns danced along its surface. He repeated this reverent worship and reequipping of every armored section until; where the enormous black man once stood, now was an even larger titan in glowing yellow and black kinetic power. _His_ power.

After ten years of forgetting himself and what his name represented, Benjamin Zachary Crater was subsumed. From within the cold, all-consuming armor, echoes of old emotions and desires resurfaced.

'_It's all comin' back to me now, this feeling…' _With a simple swing of his arm in the direction of the far wall, the air momentarily rippled and then the titanium-reinforced surface tore itself to shreds. Alarms and warning sirens filled the night, but it was an impotent gesture.

They couldn't stop him; they couldn't stop Blasting-Zone. Yes, that was his respected name to those in the know. He would put it on the tongue of every pissant in Go City.

Blasting-Zone then looked down at the tiny photo his savior had left in his care. It showed a young girl barely in her teens with short black hair and impossible emerald eyes. She sat alone and dejected in some cafeteria wearing a black elegantly cut school uniform. The irony wasn't lost on him. Apparently his shadowy employer was a comedian. At the bottom, written in red calligraphy was this; _She makes a fine shield, a shield even Shego cannot pierce. Just a suggestion. _There was a small crooked smiley face added to the end of the note.

He grinned through his mask as several armed guards ran into the cage.

Pocketing the photo in one of his many compartments, he swung his other arm in the direction of the guards and smiled as the sounds of splintering bone filled the air. '_I'm comin' back to town, Shego. Hope yah missed me.'_

Chapter 11: End

* * *

**From here on out, it's nothing but new material, folks. I'd like to thank ****all**** of you for being so patient, and my Betas Ffordesoon and Eoraptor for making this redux possible. I love you guys, and look forward to coming events. Things are really gonna start heating up soon. XD**


	12. Convergence Point

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 12: Convergence Point**

**

* * *

**

Looking up at the stars through the old rickety roof of his tree house, Ron continued to replay the last few weeks in his mind. There was no better place to think when he was feeling a need to sulk, and did he _ever_ feel a powerful need to do that tonight. After that stressful talk with his vacant and inaccessible BFF, complete with creepy little tagalong, and later an argument with Monique; he could think of no better way to cap off his evening than in the branches of the old tree.

Over the past few hours he'd decided that this wasn't as bad as the whole Bueno Nacho/Eric mess of the previous Spring. Not _quite_ anyways, but it certainly felt close enough when he looked around the empty tree house with the half-erased "no girls allowed" sign.

'_Yeah, this time there's no awesome-but-evil kid's meal robots, and Bueno Nacho isn't owned by some absent-minded blue doctor who's twelve different kinds of nuts and three kinds of ugly. Or is that three kinds of nuts and twelve kinds of ugly? Math isn't my strong suit… And Kim isn't in danger of being felt up by some kinda sick and wrong living blow-up doll… at least I don't_ think _so… But then again, I wouldn't have a clue if she was with how distant she's been.'_

He sighed for perhaps the fifteenth time that hour and shifted around on the couch, but jerked to a stop when he heard an indignant squeak and saw a wrinkled and fleshy pink face poke out of his left pants pocket and glare at him, "Hey!"

Ron winced and reached forward, scratching the little rodent at the base of his skull, "Sorry Buddy. Wasn't thinking."

Rufus rolled his squinted little eyes and chirped out a few indignant squeaks that in Ron's mind automatically translated to; _"Of course you weren't, that would get 'n the way o' your self-pity party with a side o' whinin'. Cheddar forbid you do something productive. Preferably somethin' productive involvin' mexican food, but I'm flexible."_

Of course, Moleratese was a complex language with multiple subtle nuances, but Ron had a surprisingly firm grasp of it. In response to his little companion's commentary on his dour mood, Ron crossed his arms and rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Quiet in the peanut gallery. And there's still leftover BN on the desk. Have at it."

"Cheese!" Rufus declared happily, wriggling free of his pocket nest and running down Ron's leg, onto the table, and burrowing straight through the paper of the takeout bag. Ron smirked halfheartedly, before leaning back and indulging in sigh number sixteen. _'At least _someone_ is easy to please.'_

That was the major difference between the sitch now and the one that had started the summer off. Back then, Ron had had an enemy, a face to pin his problems on. Drakken, Shego, and Eric. And the answer was obvious, get Kim away from Eric, get Bueno Nacho away from Drakken and Shego, and somewhere in the middle of all that; save the planet from twenty foot tall rampaging Diablo-bots. For the hundredth time. Now though, he and his best friend and now ex-girlfriend were in trouble all over again, but with no enemy in sight.

Ron shook his head, and glared at the ceiling. No, that wasn't right at all. He knew exactly who to blame for his wavering grip on his BFF. That was what made the whole situation evolve into some new mutant form of frustration. It was clearly all his fault, that's all there was to it.

He'd thought he was doing all the right things at the time, sure, and was entirely enthusiastic about the upgrade in their relationship dynamic. But little by little, he could see Kim becoming more and more disinterested in their outings, more insincere regarding her moods. At least as far as their being on literal dates went. By the end it didn't even feel like they were a couple anymore, merely hanging out like before. But the fact that they were _supposed_ to be boyfriend and girlfriend overshadowed all of their outings.

Ron was almost relieved when Kim suggested that they rethink where their relationship stood. He'd hoped it meant getting back down to basics, being the same best friends since Pre-K that they'd always been. But no, of course life had to be heinous and conspire against him like usual. Kim wanted to dwell on it and dissect the whole mess to see what had gone wrong. It was her essential Kimness in full effect. But if they ever did just put their failure of a relationship under a microscope, Ron feared Kim would discover what he'd known the whole time; that he was clearly to blame.

After all, he didn't take her on long fancy dates, and wasn't some big macho guy with a motorcycle like… _ugh_… Eric. That just wasn't the kind of thing Ron was into. He wasn't _that guy_. Didn't know how to be, and honestly didn't _want_ to be.

And while Kim was absolutely gorgeous, and easily the best, most important person he knew… kissing her was, to beat an old metaphor into the gravel, almost exactly like what Ron imagined kissing his sister would be, you know, if he had one. Hell, looking back on it, it was a kiss that had set off this mess in the first place!

'_Why did I even _do_ that! Or… wait… did _she_ do that? Argh! Who knows, but if I hadn't we wouldn't be living some awful Agony County episode every time we talked! Or ditching me to go on missions, like I'm somehow out of the loop.'_

'_And Monique was no help either,'_ he thought, remembering the outing he'd just had hours earlier with his other female friend. She had been immediately sensitive to Ron forcing himself to have a good time while they saw the movie. He'd just wanted to enjoy the film, or at least attempt to. But Monique, of course, just had to keep asking about how things between Kim and he were going. When his reluctance to discuss that particularly sore topic became evident, she'd become all indignant and huffy.

'_I get that she's worried, but really, why can't anyone let this go? It's not like we plan to try again, do we…?'_

He leaned up and looked at the shifting takeout bag of precious mexi-food, "Hey Rufus?"

"What?" Shouted his pet's annoyed, squeaky voice. "Eatin'!"

"Any sagely molerat wisdom you can toss my way about the KP… _thing_?" Ron probed, his voice slightly strained. Rufus seemed pretty good at dealing with the fairer sex… not for any reason Ron _understood_, but he didn't want to look a gift rodent in the incisors.

"Hmmm," Rufus hummed to himself, accompanied by rhythmic crunching and chewing. Then he chittered out, "Talk to her."

"Wow, thanks," Ron deadpanned, crossing his legs under him. "You should do this professionally."

"Yup! Humans 're easy! " Rufus cheerfully agreed, followed by a good deal of chewing. "Talk talk!" which Ron understood as moleratese, _"Just don't have the talk 'round mini Shego this time. Bad idea. Wait till she's alone before you try and broach the conversation with her."_

"Ah, well yeah duh," Ron nodded to himself, before his eyes suddenly opened and he snapped to attention at Rufus, "Wait, _what_!"

"Creepy lil girl," Rufus shrugged off matter-of-factly; slightly annoyed that he was continually being distracted from his meal, "Smoky smoky."

Ron blinked as he thought back to the small, incredibly unpleasant little girl Kim claimed to be babysitting; Angie or something weird liked that. She was green, yeah, and had the same hair and eyes as the psychopathic merc, but that could easily be a coincidence. Well… a very very _very_ unlikely easy coincidence at any rate. Also, Kim had claimed she was watching her for, quote "A friend-person, who I know and you don't," close quote. That hadn't come off as weird at the time, but… since when did Kim have friends he didn't know?

Ron suddenly stood up, as if struck by lightning, _'Hey, wait! Kim doesn't _have_ any family in Go City! But… but _Shego does_! But that doesn't make any sense… unless…'_

Ron reached into his pocket and pulled out his Kimmunicator, quickly signaling Wade, whose sleepy face filled the screen after a full minute. "R-Ron? Is… What's-,"

"Wade! Kim is being blackmailed into helping a Juvenated Shego! …wait, how do I know _what_ a Juvenator is! I'm gonna file that with the Meat Cake mystery for my memoirs or something. Whatever, not important! I _knew_ that name 'Aggy' sounded _SO_ fake."

Rubbing his eyes irritably, Wade glared at Ron with bloodshot eyes and stated flatly, "I warned you about the neurological damage that prolonged exposure to Diablo sauce causes. You have five seconds to start making sense before I call the men in clean white coats and go back to bed."

"We don't have five seconds!" Ron shouted into the screen, "Just set up a ride for me to Go City and I'll explain on the way!"

* * *

Kim looked back at the kitchen, where the Drago family matron was still presumably putting away the dishes. Mrs. Drago had told her it'd be a little while before she could bring Kim the spare linens for her brief stay, and had left the redhead to her own devices. Simply informing the heroine of that mundane agenda had somehow come across as icy and threatening. There was no way the woman wasn't doing that on purpose; however, her face always remained stoic and impassive, despite the uninviting aura that surrounded her.

'_My villains could definitely learn a thing or two about intimidation from Mrs. Drago, that's for darn sure,'_ she thought with a weak smirk_. 'I really don't know what I expected from the woman who raised Shego. Apparently anything but _that_… brrr… no wonder her daughter is so twisted. Like some kind of weird adolescent rebellion thing if I had to guess, making her all anger and emotion. But then what's happened since? Shego's hardly adolescent any more…'_

Kim nodded to herself, but then remembered that Shego had, in her own unique way, insisted that Kim find her right after the meeting with Mrs. Drago to inform her of how the events had gone down. The problem with this presented itself as soon as Kim was more than a few steps from the dining room. She had absolutely no idea where Shego would be, aside from "with Agni." As to where that was…

'_Well I don't want to interrupt something… but I also don't want Shego flying off the handle at me for not coming right up to her. Well, if I'm darned if I do and darned if I don't…'_ Kim looked around the first floor a brief moment to ascertain where the stairs were. Once she located the master stairwell, Kim made her way upwards. The building seemed to be three stories tall from the outside, so there was no telling which room was Agni's. he entire building was a confusing mishmash as it was, some kind of converted factory, with rooms not arranged at all like a family home but more like some monastery cloister. Hopefully, like the bizarre little girl who dwelled within, her room would stand out on its own.

Once on the second floor Kim checked through a restroom, broom closet, some kind of study, and a small laundry room, not to mention several empty bedrooms, with no sign of either the wily thief or her belligerent progeny. She was about to give up and move on to the third floor, when, as luck would have it, Kim picked up on the faintest aroma of smoke wafting from one end of the hall. It was weak, but it was a much more preferable lead to wandering on what seemed like a wild molerat chase.

Around the corner, Kim finally came across her destination. The room was unmistakably Agni's, what with the precious little sign taped on the front decreeing in large jagged font; "Abandon hope all ye who enter here." And in smaller print underneath; "In other words, open this door and you'll regret it forever, Losers!"

'_Well, I wonder who lives in here,'_ Kim sighed resignedly, placing her hands on her hips._ 'Charm just oozes out of this family, doesn't it?'_

Kim leaned over and lightly rapped her knuckles against the door, calling out, "Shego? Agni? You in there?"

There was a moment of silence, before Kim knocked again, a little louder this time, and tried once more to call out to them. Again, there was silence, only this time the door creaked open, giving Kim a very clear look into the very empty, if insufferably cluttered mess of a living space.

'_Well, where the heck are they then? Upstairs? Argh… this place is big enough, Shego could have at least given me _some _direction.'_ Kim blew out a "humph" of air in annoyance, and was about to turn on her heel and go back towards the stairwell, however something stilled her retreat.

She knew she should hurry upstairs and find her archrival post haste, but… when would she have a better opportunity to get an insight into how Agni had been living all alone, all this time? This was Shego's kid, after all; a person she never would have believed existed in the first place.

Slowly, she inched her way past the door, mindful of any noises her feet might make on the old wooden flooring.

'_This isn't me snooping, really,'_ Kim reasoned as she snuck forward into the preteen's quarters, _'If I'm gonna help take care of her, it'll help to get an idea of how she lives, right? And it may give me some ideas to help convince Echidna, Mother of all Monsters, that this is for the best.'_

She nodded to herself, satisfied with her own justifications, and eased the door halfway shut behind her. It took her a moment to realize she had just cast aspersions on Shego's entire family with that little mental label. Obviously hours in a car driven cross country was too long if she was picking up Shego's venomous tongue in her own head now.

Chiding herself, she shook her head and tried to get back to her normally sunny self. Looking around, the quick glances Kim had stolen from out in the hallway really only had given her a vague idea regarding the young girl's domicile. The simple fact was that it looked hopelessly cluttered and filthy; every space and surface taken up by boxes and books, papers and note pads, all spread out in hopeless chaos. Kim could only imagine the dressing down Anne would put her through if her room ever fell into such a chaotic state. Considering the tweebs' faced similar wrath on a semiweekly basis, she had some idea at least.

But almost as immediately as she stepped inside she realized that that assessment was somewhat premature. As she moved into the room and gave her unfamiliar surroundings a closer look she realized that it was in fact the opposite. There was still a strong sense of chaos to the set up, but in actuality this was controlled chaos. As she ran her eyes over the layout, a strange sense of pattern and intent began to form from the hurricane-like tossings.

Stripped of all major excess, the room was little more than a simple bedroom accommodation. To Kim's left was the closet door and bookshelf, before her was a wide rectangular window with a television beneath, and to her right, propped against the wall was a small bed beside a desk. On the desk sat a desktop PC with some cartoon screensaver slowly bouncing back and forth within the borders of the monitor. For some reason, she felt like she should give that little cartoon a closer look, but the other contents of the living space were currently closer and equally distracting.

She began to slowly walk around the room, taking in the little details and careful where she put her foot down. There were several boxes stacked on top of one another framing the space to her immediate right, each labeled with a sharpie marker, and all written boldly in Russian. Kim could speak and understand the language passably, but reading it was beyond her depth.

She approached the bookshelf and wasn't too surprised to see how swollen with literature it was. Agni seemed mature beyond her years, and if her tales of school were to be believed, then she probably spent a lot of time cocooned in her own little world.

The top section was full of contemporary young adult fiction. Not exactly higher reading, but certainly an easy way to pass the time. Several of the multiple series seemed complete and well worn. A little lower and she found herself looking down at several very thick tomes of the much more scholarly variety; _Frankenstein_, _The Island of Dr. Moreau_, _House of Leaves_, an annotated _War of the Worlds,_ even some Dickens and Twain, plus Chekov of course. Looking these over, Kim had to remind herself once again that the Go Academy wasn't just a stuffy private school. They didn't let you in just because you were rich or they never would have scouted Kim in the first place. Trailing her eyes down to the bottom section, Kim took one look and covered her mouth instinctively to hold in a laugh.

'_A girl with superpowers from a family of superheroes, and she actually reads comics?'_ Kim laughed to herself. There was a rather large pile of them scattered around the lower shelves of the book case, issues of _Fearless Ferret_, _Ultraguy_, _Wraithman_, and a bunch of other titles Ron was sure to have memorized. There was also a sizable amount of Japanese trades, each with tortured aggressive looking covers, usually featuring young women. Well, what Kim could see of them in anyway. The entire lower section of the book case was a tossed mess compared to the more studious upper stories.

'_I'd have guessed with the life she lives, these would have gotten old fast but…'_ Kim looked up, her eyes traveling the room briefly, _'I don't think she leaves here often. This isn't a bedroom so much as a nest. Planet Agni. She really is just a lonely kid under that green skin…'_

Kim felt a strong swell of sympathy as she processed that information, idly stepping around the bed. That aggressive attitude of the youngest Drago was clearly little more than a wall put up against her world. Better to hurt than be hurt. _'Huh… I wonder if that's Shego's deal too?'_

When Kim's eyes locked onto the computer screen, however, all empathetic thoughts flew out the window on a gust of irritation. The picture that moved about with crude animation as it bounced on the screen was of a small cartoonish Shego holding to flaming fists into the air in triumph. Under the caricature's foot though, was a small cartoonish Kim, face down in a red puddle with little spirals for eyes.

'_That… little…_ BRAT_!'_ Kim grit her teeth and stormed out of the room, her brush with sympathy quickly forgotten. _'I should have never given her the benefit of the doubt, she's as evil as her-'_

"Lost, Miss Possible?" came an unmistakable rough voice directly behind her. Kim gasped and whipped around, her heart catching in her throat as she came face to with Mrs. Drago. The tall woman's frozen, impassive gaze burrowing into her like a laser through her monocle. "I came up to inform you that your room is prepared."

"Uh, yeah," she squeaked out, before clearing her throat. "I mean, yes. I can't find Shego and Agni. Do you know where they are?"

There was a slight pause before Mrs. Drago turned and walked back the way she had apparently come, stating flatly, "Knowing them as I do, I would check the roof first."

* * *

'_At least this place hasn't changed,'_ Shego mused to herself, her long hair flicking about in the late evening breeze. It seemed like a lifetime ago, longer in fact, since she'd last come up to the old home's rooftop at night, just to close her eyes and let the stress and frustrations drift out onto the wind.

No one came up here, neither her parents nor her brothers, and definitely not any rare house guests. Back when she was still just a high school student playing at being a superhero, this and her room were the only places Shego could find some peace… Well, and one other place, but she didn't go there very often after Junior High.

'_Aaaaaand the roof of the GO Tower, to a lesser degree. But that place was like a symbol of stress, just _being_ there tended to suck. But I guess I've just always had an affinity for roofs and high places. Foreshadowing at its best I 'spose. And apparently Agni likes it up here too. Now what does that say about her?'_

Old Go City was always quiet compared to the constant din the main streets were known for, and that went doubly so for late at night, and triply so when three stories up on a rooftop. This whole neighborhood had always been somewhat sparse, and ever since the impact… Shego wondered if that was one of the reasons her parents had never moved. After All, the city had had little in the way of plans to renovate this area even before the comet came.

During her nostalgic musings, the super-powered thief's eyes looked down the block towards the abandoned storefronts, looking over the disused and long abandoned photomat store. The sign had weathered even more, and was beginning to tilt to one side, and one of the windows was broken. That building held such conflicting emotions and distant memories for Shego; or rather more accurately, for her unmasked childhood self, both the pink-skinned one and the green-skinned one.

Regret, loss, confusion, the old building inspired all of these feelings in her, but looking down and feeling the tiny feverously warm hand clutching her own, she couldn't help at feeling some misplaced sense of pride. _'I stuck by my principles that _one_ time, for better or for worse. I'll be the first to admit that what went down that night was an _epic_ mistake… I honestly don't even understand how that happened, but…'_

She looked down at the small head of blackish-green hair sitting quietly beside her. Shego automatically tightened her fingers more securely around Agni's hand. _'I may have been stupid, and I won't even pretend I never regretted it. But regardless, even if I could go back to that night… I wouldn't change a single thing.'_

Agni, after a moment, looked up and over at her mom, feeling she was staring at her. Both pairs of emerald green eyes locked onto each other for a moment before Agni smiled slightly and scooted over from where they were sitting on the ledge to rest her head on Shego's shoulder.

"I wish we didn't have to go back inside."

Shego frowned, and looked away towards the empty street, trying not to think of this closeness. From a distance, it was easy to have a relationship with her daughter. Hell it was fun, something to look forward to. The letters, the stories, the photos, there was something comforting in that whole routine, like having a pen pal. Up close, however, she was painfully reminded of how she'd abandoned a frightened four-year-old girl one night years ago. Left her to her uncaring bitch of a mother and a school full of hypocritical faculty and sadistic students. And worst of all, how she'd almost…

'STOP_! I am not going there! Not now, not with her right here… I just… I can't think about that,'_ The fingers on her right hand flexed, digging into the brickwork beneath them. The phantom sensation of warm wetness clinging to her nails. _'I'll_ never_ forgive myself for that!'_

Looking down towards where Agni snuggled into her, Shego noticed just how quiet she'd been since she'd found the girl up on the roof. _'Is she always this quiet? Dammit to hell, a real mother would know! She's probably worried too. Gah, you idiot,_ of course_ she is. Why wouldn't she be? Don't run away again, you bitch. Ask her how she's doing!'_

Steeling herself, Shego cleared her throat briefly managing to ask without her voice choking _too_ much, "So, kiddo… you doing… um, okay?"

There was a brief pause before Agni's head nodded against Shego's shoulder, hesitant to break the quiet again for fear her mother would evaporate on the breeze. Briefly, she peeked up at her mother through her long bangs, with a questioning sideways glance. "Are _you_ doing okay?"

_'Intuitive, ain't she,'_ Shego mused, giving a weak but reassuring smirk. "Of course, you know this is in the bag. Kimmie may be an annoying, altruistic-to-a-fault, self-important stubborn meddler, but she's on _our_ side... this time. Your Gram is nowhere near as tough as me, and even I have trouble dealing with Kim. Don't waste your brainwaves on worrying."

Agni stared up at Shego for a moment, her eyebrow quirking up slightly.

After a moment, Shego frowned uncomfortably and asked, "Uh… what?"

"It's just," Agni began, searching for the proper way to put her question, "It's _weird_ that you have so much faith in your arch enemy, ain't it?"

Shego sputtered indignantly for a moment, before simply scoffing and shrugging off the thought with a dismissal, "Whatever, any _good_ villain knows her heroine's strengths. Besides, she's _Drakken's_ arch enemy… I'm just an evil lieutenant."

Agni frowned at that statement, but neither she nor Shego were entirely sure as to why. But soon after she smiled again and wrapped both arms around her mother's, laying her head back down on her shoulder. "Well, you're wrong. I'm not worried, but not because of Goody-two shoes… You're here."

That did it, Shego could feel her eyes welling up with wetness, she quickly turned away, gritting her teeth and using all of her rather impressive will to hold back the tears. _'Why doesn't she _HATE_ me? I left her to all this. It's all _my_ fault. She has to know that! I know her, she's not a forgiving child. She holds grudges, has a short temper, gets into fights all the time. So why the fuck does she put me on some kind of goddamn pedestal!'_

She discretely rubbed her eyes with her right hand, her gums hurting from how tightly she was clenching her jaw against the emotions, _'Why is she so unconditionally able to forgive me?'_

Cautiously turning back to where her daughter happily clung to her arm, Shego could feel the question forming, but had no power to stop it. She simply couldn't leave this alone, it wasn't fair.

"Agni… listen, I-"

The sound of the roof entrance creaking open quickly grabbed the attention of both green girls. Kim stepped out, quickly locked eyes with the both of them and shrugged in exasperation. "Jeez, Shego. You could have told me you were up here. I spent ten minutes looking for you."

"Well, congrats, you found us," Agni muttered, letting go of Shego and crossing her arms, apparently forgetting about her mother's half-finished question. "Wanna cookie or something?"

Shego laughed a bit too brashly, thankful for the convenient distraction from asking something she may have ended up regretting later. "Hehe, I wonder where she gets it."

She moved her legs back over the ledge and stood up, walking over to Kim and placing her hands on her hips imperiously. "So, how'd it go down between you and Hell-bitch?"

Kim sighed and looked between Agni and Shego, before putting on a confidant smile and placing her own hands on her hips, putting on an air of confidence. Taking a deep breath, she briefed the pale woman on what had taken place.

* * *

'_Gosh is this place gloomy,'_ Kim thought to herself and her eyes traveled over Mrs. Drago's home office. The Drago family Matron had earlier instructed Kim and Shego to meet her there for the discussion regarding Agni this morning. Mrs. Drago, however, was oddly absent thus far, leaving Kim and Shego sitting alone.

'_The place reflects its owner's personality to a T,' _Kim internally grumbled.

That reflection, of course, being cold, dark, and lacking anything resembling embellishments or notable excess, while still retaining an obvious air of some sort of eccentricity. The centerpiece of the room was a wide oak desk, an antique from the look of it, looking as though its old craftsmanship could withstand even Hego's might. Two old wooden chairs were positioned in before it, and though slight as any wooden chair, they gave no flexibility or squeak in their construction either. On the desk was a desktop computer, desk lamp, and various office supplies, but no family photos or personal items that Kim could see. As the windows were covered by thick blinds, the only source of, insufficient, light in the room was provided by the desk lamp.

There were three file cabinets taking up the length of the left-hand wall, but none were labeled. The opposite wall was filled by bookshelves housing what seemed to be thick tomes of reference materials. The only personal effects Kim could see were a pair of charcoal drawings framed and on opposite sides of the room from one another. Kim had needed to stand up to look them over, prompting an annoyed scoff from her companion where she sat fidgeting in her own seat.

The first sketch was a surreal view of the Go City skyline, the buildings bent and reaching tall, curving inwards like giant jagged fingers in some deformed sense of perspective. In the main street dividing the scenery were two small and featureless black figures with their hands joined.

The second was much simpler; it was the GO Tower, a scenic view from an angle so that the sun was positioned behind the massive 'GO' in sunset. The mixed signals quickly caught Kim's mind, _'Such contrasting messages between these two.'_

Briefly she glanced at Shego where she sat still in her chair, deigning not to join the redhead in her examinations. Shego continued to shift from crossing her left leg over her right, to switching over and crossing her right leg over her left. She was clearly nervous about the coming proceedings and doing a poor job of hiding it.

Grumbling in exasperation, Kim sat back in her chair, "Shego, that is uber-annoying, _calm down_. I told you, this'll be no big."

Shego sneered slightly, and made a dismissive grunt, turning away from Kim but visibly settling herself. "Bitch sure is taking her sweet time."

"Of course she is. Intimidation seems ferociously wired into her. I mean just _look_ at this room, it's like it was designed to make people want to keep their distance," Kim stated flatly, gesturing to the office around them. "The chairs alone are so slight compared to the desk, meant to make us feel like naughty students or something."

"Oh, you think this is bad," Shego smirked, although the amusement didn't reach her eyes. "Imagine what it was like for me to tell her I was _pregnant_ in here. Bear in mind, I was _thirteen_ at the time."

Try as she might, Kim couldn't hide the shudder that went racing down her spine at the thought. _'I'd redo that Lil' Diablo mess a dozen times, over having to ever experience something like _that_ in a place like this.'_

"Of course, she already knew _somehow_," Shego muttered under her breath, glaring at the far wall to avoid any kind of eye contact.

"What does your mom do in here anyways," Kim asked, leaning back in her seat. She could tell that Shego needed a change of subject if she was going to not just shut down entirely again like in the car.

Shego raised her eyebrow slightly and gave Kim a questioning look, "I figured Agni would have at least told you that much. Mommy Dearest is a private eye, believe it or not. A real Dick."

There was a brief pause as Kim processed this, before she lowered her head and smiled halfheartedly. "You know, that's one of the least surprising things I've heard all week."

Both of them laughed a bit at this, which normally would have struck the both of them as odd.

"Now remember what we discussed," Kim finally stressed for the fifth time today, "I wanted you to be here too because this is way important to you. But please don't-"

"I know, I know, I know!" Shego stressed in irritation, rubbing her brow with a strained look that Kim recognized as one she wore often when dealing with her blue employer. "I won't snark, or insult, or interrupt. I'll be a _good_ little career criminal."

"Shego…" Kim warned, giving the green thief the same look she'd give Ron to drive her point across.

"Puh-leez, Princess, what do you take me for?" Shego glared, leaning towards Kim, making the redhead lean away slightly, "I want this to work out _far_ more than you do."

Kim was about to respond when the door behind them creaked open loudly and Mrs. Roza Drago finally stepped inside. She made a brief and seemingly insincere, "I apologize for the delay," as she stepped around Kim and Shego and took her seat behind the old desk.

Kim noticed Shego stiffen, her fingers digging into the chair's arms. Spontaneously and discretely, Kim reached over and touched the side of Shego's arm, getting her attention. The thief blinked and turned her attention over to Kim. The redhead smiled encouragingly when their eyes met, and after a moment Shego sighed and forced herself to calm down. Relieved, Kim turned her attention back to Mrs. Drago.

If she noticed the brief exchange between them, she gave no indication of it. She simply raised her left eyebrow ever-so-slightly at the silence, "Let us get to the point. You wished to discuss my granddaughter's future with me."

Kim swallowed, trying to get her thoughts in order. Sitting up straight in her chair, Kim cleared her throat and focused on Shego's mother.

"That's right, Mrs. Drago," the cheerleader began, cautiously keeping her voice calm and level and trying not to feel like an eight-year-old in the principal's office. "As you know already, Agni came to me for help finding Shego, due to some kind of stress regarding her educational environment and home life."

The redhead paused, waiting to see if Mrs. Drago wished to respond. She simply continued to stare into Kim's eyes, apparently giving the silent go ahead to continue. Briefly glancing over at Shego, where she sat glaring with her arms crossed, Kim continued.

"When I spent some time with her, it became obvious that Agni has some serious anger issues, and a strong sense of being alone in the world. She's a very bright young girl, and clearly is starved for affection but…"

'_But I really don't think you know what affection means, Mrs. Drago, and your husband is a dictionary example of ebullient.'_ Kim managed to keep from saying this out loud.

Shego 'tsked' under her breath, her eyes narrowing slightly in response to this fairly mellow characterization.

'_Well, time to get to the grit,'_ Kim thought, steeling herself to get down to her main point of all this.

"This, and all the bullying she mentions at school has only aggravated her situation, and considering she ran across three states just to find me, in order to find her mother… I think we can conclude that her problems are significant enough to warrant changes."

Mrs. Drago's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, but she remained silent. Kim wished she would say something, anything, give some actual feedback during all this. But no, it was like trying to converse with an ice sculpture, one which did not melt.

Taking a deep breath, Kim concluded her opening, "All things considered… I honestly believe that Agni needs a change of scenery for things to turn for the better."

"And you believe that Middleton is an appropriate 'change of scenery'?" Roza queried, speaking up finally for the first time since Kim had begun. Her voice was low and level, giving away no intention or hint at her reception.

Kim frowned and briefly glanced back at Shego, before turning back to Mrs. Drago and nodding slightly. "Um… well, yes actually. The middle-school there would allow your granddaughter a great deal more freedom, and from what I have gathered from Agni, I'm sure that the students and faculty would be much more welcoming. She would have a much easier time making friends and improving her social skills, which I believe she desperately needs."

The redhead leaned back slightly, considering how to phrase this next part carefully so not to make Agni, and by association, her family, sound undesirable. "Also, Middleton has a high tolerance for… _unusual_ happenings."

Kim forced a smile, "After all, I've saved the world more times than I can count, but very few times if any is that considered any big deal there. So Agni's… um…"

"Her nature," Shego stated flatly, saving Kim the embarrassment of trying to come up with an appropriate description. "My daughter's unusual nature…"

"Uh, thanks Shego," Kim added briefly, "But what I mean is, she could probably get away with not being forced to wear that makeup disguise anymore. Doing without all that and being honest with her appearance might squash her feelings of isolation."

Shego frowned, her cynicism not quite letting her believe that last part. Still, she wanted to believe Agni could have something more closely resembling a normal life, so she didn't let fly her doubts.

"As it stands now…," Kim continued her tone a good deal more firm, "I can't help but feel Agni might be a danger to herself and others. I'm surprised there hasn't been an incident regarding her powers already, but I believe helping her in this way would improve her self-control and avoid any kind of future incidents.

Taking a breath, the redhead made her final push, "And finally, if she stayed with me, Agni would have an opportunity to actually see Shego, which I think we all can agree would mean a great deal to her. Shego's told me she can't stay with her, but this arrangement may be the next best thing."

Sighing, Kim slumped her shoulders back in her chair, feeling mentally exhausted at having gone over such heavy material with such a ferociously unresponsive audience. She'd rather be scaling the side of a free flight weather machine in a storm than doing this. Even now, Mrs. Drago was still eyeing the both of them, with no indication that she intended to respond at all, let alone favorably

"You gonna actually say something back? Or you just gonna sit there and be a stone-balled bitch all morning?" Shego stressed through gritted teeth, leaning forward and threatening to get out of her chair, before she felt a firm hand on her shoulder keeping her in place.

"So am I to understand, Miss Possible, that that is all you have to say?" Mrs. Drago asked bluntly.

Both Kim and Shego frowned, taken aback by Mrs. Drago's question. After a second, Kim hazarded, "Was… something not clear?"

"I am afraid, Miss Possible, that I am the one who must clarify certain details," Roza's monocle caught the light of the desk lamp ominously as she said that, somehow mirroring coldness despite the broad daylight in the rest of the room.

'_That's it! She's totally doing that on purpose,'_ Kim realized in annoyance. She refocused on Roza's unaided eye in mild irritation of the theatrics.

"First of all, regarding the school Agni attends, I did not make that decision lightly. It is true that one of the major reasons she attends that academy is their advanced curriculum; my granddaughter is every bit as bright as her mother, and I do not intend to repeat allowing those talents to go wasted. However that was only one factor in my decision to place Agni in the Go Academy. My other reason being that it is a secure facility and offers constant supervision. Supervision Agni desperately requires." Mrs. Drago's carefully chosen and precise words belied even the faintest hint of her native tongue, further off-putting Shego, who was used speaking a thick Slavic speech when in this office.

"Secondly," the matriarch continued before Kim could respond, "Regarding her disguise, I do not require she wear that for aesthetics. I'm not nearly as shallow as that."

Shego scoffed loudly, and looked like she forcibly swallowed back a retort, but Mrs. Drago went on unconcerned.

"She wears that makeup to conceal her connection to my daughter. I do not need to inform you of how many enemies she has made throughout her career, or how many villains and other disreputable types would jump at the opportunity to take advantage of a child with such powers."

Kim winced, trying quickly to think of a detailed retort, but Shego's mother gave her no opening, leaving the teen more frustrated for her inability to counter.

"Regarding my daughter," her eyes narrowed slightly, "I know you are aware how my granddaughter idolizes Shego and her criminal lifestyle. An idolization I discourage to the best of my ability."

Her pale blue eyes narrowed in Shego's direction, and the glare was quickly returned, "I know that Shego encourages Agni's delinquency and fosters her sense of self-isolation. Without this kind of influence, she could very well have found healthier ways to deal with her social issues rather than lashing out physically and verbally at every opportunity."

"Mom, you are so full of-!"

"And finally, Miss Possible," Roza cut Shego off making her turn red in the face with barely concealed rage. The older woman's eyes took on a familiar threatening glow causing Kim to scoot away from the desk unconsciously. "This next point is perhaps the most obvious flaw in your… fairly _well-crafted_ argument."

Roza leaned forward, placing her hands on the arms of her chair, "You are a minor who lives with your parents and thus are wholly inappropriate to act as the guardian of a preteen girl with special needs. I'm also relatively certain that you have not actually disclosed this plan to your parents either."

Shego stood up suddenly, her hands ablaze, "I knew this was a waste of time! I warned you on the phone, remember? I can always just ma-"

The redhead quickly moved in front of the thief to try and salvage the situation, "Mrs. Drago, please, think this over carefully. I understand your position really, but… try to be flexible! I think if you try to see this from Agni's end of things…"

"Don't even bother!" Shego hissed, trying to shove past the obstruction Kim presented, "Bitch doesn't have it in her to empathize with anyone! Never has, now get out of the way."

"Mrs. Drago-," Kim tried again desperately, wondering if this was actually going to devolve into a fist fight. She scrambled to reset her argument in the face of Mrs Drago's total opposition, "I really think you're being pretty inflexible about the situation. It's not all that clear cut and-,"

"I have said all I intend to say on the matter, Miss Possible," Roza stated darkly sitting back and folding her hands.

Shego jerked forward even harder at the rebuke, trying to get around her nemesis and at her domineering mother.

"God DAMMIT!" someone shouted, surprising all the occupants in the room. Most shocked was Kim, who was the one who had shouted it, while slamming her palm on the desk. Shaking her head bitterly, her diplomatic façade shattered, Kim leaned in and growled dangerously. "What part of a twelve-year-old girl bolting across the country _by herself_ don't you understand?"

Her tone rising, she pressed on, "So what if her mom's a criminal? She's a little girl and she feels completely alone! That is the important part in _all of this_!"

"I don't know what happened to turn you into… _this_," the teen stated through gritted teeth, gesturing to Roza, "But I can see why your family is so heinously messed up. I pity you! If you have a heart, even a tiny shriveled one, than do right by your granddaughter and admit your mistakes! All of them!"

Shego stood there looking at her arch rival in dumb shock, too surprised by perfect Kim Possible's righteous outburst to formulate an intelligent reaction.

Roza, however had no such problem. Standing up, the older woman leaned down so that she and Kim were eye to eye before stating flatly, "My decision, Miss Possible, is _final_."

* * *

'_You just _had _to listen in, didn'tcha Agni,' _Agni grumbled internally, _''cause you're a masochist like that.'_

She'd known the outcome of the conversation well in advance. It was an inevitability, really. The idea that her grandmother would allow her to go to a different school, and see her mother… Really, this was doomed from the start.

Agni had known all of this and yet she couldn't help herself. She was right there with her ear pressed to the door so that she could listen in on every excruciating moment.

Kim had impressed her, managing to sound all adult and professional like that, and lay things out like some lawyer from the TV, but the sinking feeling Agni had felt all morning was enough warning for her to realize that this was a doomed endeavor. Her grandmother's words were simply the final nail in the casket.

'_And I was dumb enough to hope,'_ she sighed, lowering her head more so all she could see was the cracks in the sidewalk. This reminded her of the Pandora's Box myth in her old Mythology book. Hope was locked away with the rest of the evil, because it by far was the most destructive of them all. _'Well, I'm not gonna make _that _mistake again…'_

Agni could barely remember what had happened after the conversation had descended into such a disaster. One minute, she was sitting outside the door, and the next she was slowly shuffling down the sidewalk on autopilot.

She had even bothered to put on her disguise, instead simply pulling her hood up and keeping her hands in her front pockets. Although, as of right now, she couldn't have cared less if anyone saw her skin.

'_Well, what's the plan now? Run away again? No point now, is there? I've got nowhere to go and nothing to do. Maybe I could go out and be the world's youngest supervillain,'_ she thought to herself with bitter amusement as she slowly put one foot in front of the other.

'_I just don't-'_

"_OW_!" Agni cried out, falling back and clutching her forehead. She'd walked head first into something _damn_ hard. At first she'd thought it was a light post, but there wouldn't have been one out in the middle of the sidewalk, and she was cognizant enough to at least not have wandered to the curb or into the street, even on automatic pilot.

Squinting in pain despite her rapidly receding bruise, Agni narrowed her eyes and looked up past the edge of her hood… and up… and up… until she finally met a pair of radiant yellow electronic eyes, crackling with electricity, staring back at her.

Just below the eyes, Agni could see a pair of initials, "BZ", emblazoned and glowing with ominous light across the enormous breastplate. In the back of her mind, the tween recognized the armor; it had been on display in the GO Tower the few times she'd visited.

And the name associated with that armor came rushing to the forefront of her mind, just as a massive titanium-plated hand reached down towards her with grim finality.

Chapter 12: End

* * *

**Author's Notes: Wow, it's been awhile… I dedicate this newest chapter to my awesome and infinitely impressive Editor, Eoraptor. Anything witty in this chapter is likely thanks to him. Thanks, man. Always.**

**And to my readers for sticking with me this long. Sorry guys. New chapter shouldn't take nearly as long. ^^U**


	13. All Fall Down

_Your standard legal disclaimer thing: I don't own Kim Possible. I will remove this story off the net if they give me shit. Blah blah blah, yada yada yada. You all know the drill by now._

Small Surprises, Big Consequences

**Chapter 13: All Fall Down**

* * *

"My decision, Miss Possible, is _final_."

The words seemed to echo through the enclosed office, each tick of the clock further impaling its point upon the three within. Ms. Drago's frozen blue eyes never wavered from Kim's glare, seemingly carved from crystal in their contempt for the teen. Kim grit her teeth, flushed and painfully aware of her earlier outburst as she struggled to think of someway, any way, to salvage this titanic disaster of a meeting. By her side, Shego's head was lowered, her hair shielding her eyes completely from Kim's view, but the redhead could plainly see the thief's black lips pulled back in a furious grimace. Whisps of smoke were drifting from between her teeth with her every breath.

'_Anything's Possible for a Possible, Kim! C'mon, think! What can you say now!?'_she shouted internally, desperate for a solution.

Before anything could be said, Ms. Drago's contemptuous expression relaxed somewhat and she leaned back down into her seat, swiveling away from the two and facing the blinded window behind her.

"I trust you know your way out, Miss Possible, Shego. I have other matters that require my attention."Roza stated calmly, facing away from them and disappearing into the high-backed chairs shadow, acting as though she were entirely unaware of the rising tension in the room, and the blistering heat radiating from one of its occupants.

Kim turned her eyes back towards Shego, looking her over like one would a time bomb or leaking toxic waste barrel, neither of which were particular stretches. The older woman's flame powers were flickering wildly, uncontrolled. More physical manifestations of her feelings than the controlled fists of plasma Kim had so much experience with. Kim's whole body tensed when Shego pulled her hand back, the light therein twisting and knotting in on itself in ways that seemed to defy description.

Kim's muscles reflexively tightened, readying herself to jump forward and redirect the blast before it cleared the thief's grip, leaving Shego guilty only of attempted matricide. But to Kim's great relief, the warped light died out suddenly, and the thief turned around, facing the office door.

Gritted out past her clenched jaw, she growled out, "Bad enough that I had to suffer you for eighteen years. I don't know what was going through my idiot head when I left her with you, but I'll be damned if I allow it another night."

With that, Shego stormed off, nearly yanking the door off its hinges and not bothering to shut it behind her. Her heavy footfalls could be heard disappearing all the way through the hall.

The whole proceeding was only fifteen minutes at most, but it left Kim's mind completely scattered. Too much to process, and no idea how to proceed in the face of intractable defiance. This wasn't like stopping mad scientists, or babysitting problem children, or stopping a robot apocalypse. Frankly she would have chosen any one of those sitches over this.

She turned and began to walk slowly out of the office, stress running through her body in waves and chilling her to the bone. She didn't want to give up; she couldn't for Agni's sake if anything. Her Essential Kimness wouldn't allow her to leave this such a crashing burning disaster even if she did want to give up. She just needed to calm down and the answer would come. It always di-

'_Hold up,'_ Kim frowned; a nagging feeling interrupted her attempt at managing her thoughts. _'WHAT did Shego say before running off? She wouldn't… oh who am I kidding? _Of course_ she would!'_

"Shego! Wait!" Kim suddenly shouted, taking off in a dead sprint in the direction the thief had stomped off in. **  
**

**_-SSBC-_**

'_I should have just done this from the start! What was I even thinking?! This is why I quit being a hero in the first place! Because heroes don't accomplish shit!'_ Shego thought furiously as she stormed through the Drago Manor halls with livid purpose.

Shego knew her intentions were obvious to the two people she'd left behind, but she didn't care. Inwardly she dared someone to try to stop her. She would be thrilled to unleash this building fury all over the first poor bastard to get in her way. Her eyes glowed brightly, leaving trails in the air in her wake as she stormed up to Agni's room, formerly her own, and opened the door.

"Agni! Grab your stuff, kiddo. We're going on a nice long trip 'til you're eightee…" she frowned and looked through the cluttered living space, searching from corner to corner through the controlled clutter.

Her preteen was nowhere in sight. Narrowing her eyes, the villainess stepped back out into the hallway and crossed her arms tightly in simmering irritation. Her brow furrowed as she struggled to see past the fog of her anger and think of where Agni may have gone.

After a moment of this she gave up and decided to just search out the rest of the house. However, as soon as she turned a familiar and irritating redhead was standing in her path. Kim's face was flush from running the distance from Roza's office to the second story hallway, though she was far too fit to so much as breathe hard from such minor exertion. She looked up into Shego's eyes, her lips pressed thin.

"Shego, no, this isn't going to work and you know it." Even with their unspoken truce in effect, Kim braced herself. Shego was a volatile creature at the best of times; shifting instantly between lazy disinterest and a whirlwind of destruction with little provocation. And that was without something she personally cared about on the line.

"Oh, _you're_ still here?" she questioned, curling her lip distastefully at the sight of the heroine standing in her way. "You best call up one of your little favors and hightail it back to suburbia, Princess. Your way fucked up, now things happen my way. Toodles."

She moved to shove past Kim and continue her search without waiting for a reply.

However the cheerleader had other ideas and in a surprising show of strength, she grabbed Shego by the shoulders, spun her, and pushed her into the far wall. "Think for once! If you thought this was an option you'd have done it already!"

Shego's nostrils flared and she looked about to blast Kim's skull apart like so much ripe gourd, "Pumpkin, you are REALLY push-"

"Shut up and listen, dammit! YOU are a supervillain!" The redhead snarled, "An EVIL WANTED FELON around practically half the planet! If you kidnapped your daughter, Agni will NEVER have a decent life or education, or a future. You'd be stealing that from her, and you KNOW it! Do you WANT her to end up with someone like Drakken?!"

After a moment, she felt Shego's shoulders sag and her look melt from one of fury to mere scorn.

Kim barely suppressed a sigh of relief. "Just calm down, kay? So not the time for your drama."

Stepping back, she gave Shego a few feet of space and a weak smile. "You can't solve everything by blowing it up."

"Bite me. You sound like a bad after school special," Shego scoffed. She took a deep breath, and could actually feel the air cool down around them.

"I don't care if I sound like an episode of Pals, we're not doing your villain shtick, now or ever." Kim enforced.

"Even if I agree to try your namby-pamby goody-two shoes ways again, and that's an if the size of Greenland mind you, what would we do now?" her brow knit in frustration. "Echidna hath spoken."

Sighing, Kim reached up and messaged her right temple, admitting to herself that the diplomatic route hadn't worked out as she had hoped.

"OK, fine… I'll admit I don't exactly have any ideas. But if you let me contact Wade, maybe there's a favor I can call in that would help us."

"You get that Agni's existence is supposed to be secret, right?" Shego snapped, shooting down the sentiment instantly with almost physical fury. "Did the begging and threatening not clue you in that we DON'T involve anyone else?"

"People are already involved! Subtle, Agni is so NOT! My mom met her, my brothers met her, RON met her, and who knows who else met her on her great interstate odyssey!" she blew out a breath in growing frustration.

"That's one thing," Shego huffed, crossing her arms. "Announcing her to your creepy loudmouth hacker pet is another thing entirely."

"Don't call Wade that," Kim gritted out, her eyes wandering as she thought. Looking past Shego's shoulder, she blinked in confusion after a moment, realizing something was amiss. "Hey Shego… just where IS Agni anyways?"

**-SSBC-**

Agni suppressed a wince, struggling and pulling at her right arm; the limb grasped in a vice-grip of metal fingers as thick as baseball bats. Still, pull as she might, her arm was more or less swallowed by the hand and arm attached to a wall of metal with sickly yellow energy crackling about its surface. All she could do was glare up at him, her eyes flashing petulantly beneath her hoodie.

It had all happened so quickly that she was still feeling some shock and disbelief. The hand, being crushed in a metal grip, and a blinding rush of air as she felt the ground disappear out from beneath them, before coming down with a resounding crash that had nearly caused her to bite clean through her tongue. Now that the world had stopped spinning, Agni looked over the new scene and tried to rake her brain, to remember her mother's stories and her uncles' bragging. She had to know this guy from _somewhere_. She was SURE she'd seen this butt ugly garish trashcan before. But the name and the stories continued to escape her.

The worst of it though, even more so than the mechanized grip; was just being touched by the power-suited man. Proximity with the suit's surface sent uncomfortable tingles rippling across her chest. She could feel a throbbing hum from within her body as if in response to the energy her assailant radiated.

And she couldn't stand another second of it! That thrumming was making her nauseous. With another groan, she braced her legs against the wrist and pulled, crying out at the strain on her shoulder. But she grit her teeth and endured the stretching as she tried to wrench her arm free.

Looking around, she could see people staring and pointing, taking pictures with their phones or starting to run, maybe for help, more likely just for their own safety. _'Cowards! Fucking chicken shits! I don't need any of you!'_

The armored figure seemed almost entirely unaware of her, aside from their first confrontation, when he had first grabbed her by the arm and suddenly rocketed off before she could call out.

And she had walked right into him!

She'd been too frozen to attempt escape while they were airborn. Now however they seemed to have landed in Go's financial district. Everyone having scattered out of the way through experience with the long history of Go City supervillain spectacles.

The cruel helmet turned back and forth as the figure looked over his landing zone. As threatening as a ten-foot-tall walking bulldozer was, it was nothing the citizens hadn't seen before from time to time. Which was why as many of them were staying to watch from a safe distance as were fleeing. For now the armored thing was looking back and forth, ignoring the curses and obscenities she directed his way as she tried to free herself.

She roared and pulled again, fighting against years of mental conditioning and stigma from her grandmother to summon up her glow. Everyone was watching her. She was a hood away from showing off her skin, light up and there would be no question. The whole of Go City would know she was a freak, and just whose freak she was.

'_I can't believe I get grabbed by a monster the day I forget to go out without my makeup! I'm the biggest idiot on Earth! Even Hego isn't this stupid! FUCK!_'

Finally, the figure turned to her, and she let out a whimper as she was suddenly lifted off the ground by her bound arm again, until she was face to mask with the armored man and dangling in the air like a dead bird in a butcher's window. Cruel lenses stared back at her, glowing with piercing focused light as they regarded her not unlike said meat.**"99.87% MATCH, ALRIGHT."**

She bit her lip, eyes watering from the pain as she matched the alien gaze of her assailant. Overwhelmed after a moment, she roared out at the suit, "I'm not scared of you, you tin man piece of shit! You hear me?! I go to class with worse than you! Now let me down, let me down now or-"

"**SHUT. UP."** The synthesized voice cut off dispassionately out from some unknown source within the bulldozer-colored suit. She could feel the sound vibrate against the skin on her cheeks as much as hear it.

His bored tone shocked her into silence as it revealed more, **"GOD, YOU'RE AS BIG A PAIN IN MY ASS AS SHE IS. GENETICS ARE A REAL CRUEL BITCH."**

A cold chuckle was projected at her as she was scrutinized in detail by the electronic eyes. She unconsciously wrapped her free arm around herself, one extra layer between her and those awful lights. When he gave her a shake for emphasis, she bit her lip on the points of her teeth and tasted harsh coppery blood.

"**DO ME A SOLID, GIRL. WHAT IS THE FASTEST WAY TO GET YO BITCHY HALF-VILLAIN MOM OUT HERE? HOW BIG A MESS DO I GOTTA MAKE? KINDA ON THE CLOCK HERE."**

'_This is just like… no! No it's not like that! It's not like that again! I'm not some little baby now! I'm just… Fine! You want a piece of Mom, asshole?! Here's a 5,000 degree piece with your name on it! From the best she ever made!'_Agni punctuated her thoughts by roaring out and igniting her hands, oblivious to the distant gasps as she brought her free hand back and let loose with a fist full of star fury.

Though she was unpracticed in using such temperatures, Agni blasted a column of flame point blank into the metal face with all the force she could drag up from within. The stream engulfed and obscured his head completely from view. Her youthful features deformed by the feral grin pulled across her face as she let go of all the anger that had been festering in her for weeks, pointed canines beared like a hungry wolf.

'_Ride that one to hell, Jerkface!'_ she thought in triumph as she heard popping and crackling behind the brilliant green flames.

Just as quickly, her heart caught in her throat. The reality settled in that she'd just unleashed more heat than she ever had in the sum of her entire life straight into the guy's face. She must have roasted him alive in his shell, and it gave her a sudden queasy feeling in the pit of her twelve year old stomach.

The extreme wavering heat and ignited oxygen obscured his face from any view; but she couldn't breathe where she hung in his grasp three feet away, suddenly horrified at the possibility of seeing his face melted and burned to the skull, or deformed and leaving nothing but a crater of pooled metal and roasted flesh between his shoulders.

The sudden crushing weight of that possibility fogging her young mind was interrupted by a low chuckle. The smoke drifted away completely to reveal the helmet whole. Lacking so much as a single scorch mark of evidence that she had exerted her unique power point blank into his face.

"**WELL THERE IT IS. SHADY WAS RIGHT. I ALMOST DIDN'T BELIEVE IT, TRUTH TO PHOTO IS ONE THING, BUT **_**THAT**_** HAD YO MOMMA WRITTEN ALL OVER IT. IMMA GUESS SHE DIDN'T TELL HER LIL' PUNK BRAT 'BOUT OL' BLASTING-ZONE THOUGH. 'ELSE SHE MIGHTA TOLD YAH THAT MY BARRIER REDIRECTS HEAT AND RADIATION. I'M ALMOST OFFENDED, FEH."**

Fear and stress gave way again to anger as she glared at the villain and snapped out, "If my mom told me about every COCHROACH she stepped on, I'd never hear the end of it!"

"**DAT… IS **_**SO**_** CUTE."** He turned and Agni heard the surprisingly blessed sound of several police cruisers speeding towards them from all sides of the intersection. He laughed and looked back towards her. **"LEMME SHOW YA A NEAT TRICK. IMMA MAKE SOME GCPD PIGS DISAPPEAR."**

He pointed his free hand towards one of the approaching police interceptors, his index finger outstretched like a mock gun. **"BANG."**

Agni gasped suddenly, a painfully deep, ear-splitting bass noise rocking through her. Not quite within her audible range, more a sound you felt rather than heard. She felt her bones shake like tuning forks within her flesh and that queasy feeling in her chest increased by a hundred. Around them windows cracked and splintered. All the while she clenched her eyes shut from the sudden rush of air, punctuated by an awful hollow crushing and shuddering, shaking the ground beneath them.

She looked back towards where he'd pointed in the direction of the cop cars. The sight she beheld seemed less like something that had just happened than something out of a big budget alien action movie. The car that 'Blasting Zone' had pointed at wasn't a car any more. In its place was a crescent shaped smear of black and white metal. The only way the pre-teen knew it had once been a cop car at all was that some bits, such as the light bar and back wheels, had been blasted free instead of being crushed.

The sheer force of what had just happened was brought home a second later, when what Agni thought was smoke drifted over them. She looked at it settling on the arm of her hoody and realized it wasn't smoke or even ash, but paint. Black and white paint literally blasted free of the cop car and atomized into the air by the force of the blast. Agni had blown up enough junk in her spare time to know that you didn't just knock paint off of metal.

The hooded girl looked up in uncomprehending awe.

"**NICE, HUH GIRL? ONLY 45% OUTPUT ON THAT UGLY SUMBITCH. THERE WONT BE 'NOUGH O' YO MOMMA LEFT TO FILL AN ASHTRAY, IS ALL I GOT TO SAY."**

She stared up at him, dawning horror and anger and shame and a hundred other feelings rising within her. There was nothing she could say to this monster that would sum up even a fraction of it. So she did the next best thing, and spat right into his left optic.

"…**I TAKE IT BACK. YOU AIN'T THAT CUTE. AND IT SEEMS YO MOMMA DID A SHIT JOB O' TEACHIN' YOU TA MIND YO ELDERS. Y'KNOW, MAH POP WASN'T WORTH SHIT. BUT THE MAN WAS AN OLD HAT AT TEACHIN' LIL' SHITS RESPECT. THIS IS HOW HE TAUGHT ME."**

His fist clenched tighter around her restrained arm, a terrible pressure building from the strangled muscle and halted blood flow. Before Agni's brain could even register what Blasting-Zone intended, he wrenched his arm to the right, against the joint.

Agni heard the wet crunch long before the wave up agony fell upon her. When it did, she tried to resist calling out, and her anger and adrenaline pumping through her body helped; but within a moment, the pain her hand being crushed deep inside of the metal paw overwhelmed her twelve year old mind and she screamed out with all the breath she had.

_**-SSBC-**_

Ron grunted as his body hit the asphalt and he not-so-expertly rolled into a ball to soften the impact. He ignored Rufus' put upon squeak from within his shirt pocket as his body rolled several feet away from the open car door. Before his body had even stopped moving, the boy could hear the vehicle he had made his sudden and unexpected departure from peel out, leaving him in its departing tire smoke.

Taking a moment to see that his shirt-going passenger and he were all in one piece, Ron stood shakily and dusted himself off. He turned an upset look towards the escaping vehicle and pulled his pocket open to peek down at his hairless companion.

"I don't get it," he muttered. "I gave that guy's wife a complement when I asked if that was his mother in the picture."

Rufus responded with scoff, a series of chitters, and a roll of his beady black eyes.

"I dunno, I thought it was a pretty awesome recovery when I said it was smooth of him to go for that whole 'pretty on the inside' thing. It shows character!"

His molerat companion scoffed again through his buckteeth and made a dismissive motion and a series of squeaks.

"Aw, c'mon! That's not fair," Ron muttered, shoving his hands into his pants pockets and searching for his Kimmunicator. "I did apologize about the wife thing, but how was I supposed to know the other pic was him and his daughter!? Those are some LOUSY genetics there, lil' dude."

He frowned and whispered into his pocket, "And… uh… let's keep the burning of the bridge on this KP-favor on the down low, okay…?"

He pulled free his Kimmunicator and quickly connected to his pudgy younger teammate. "OK, Wade, I'm here in Go City. Now tell me how to get this gizmo to track down the evil green munchkin and help KP."

"Ron," the young teen entreated, "Listen, I saw this girl myself, and while her somehow being an adult supervillain isn't the strangest thing we've seen, or even in the top ten, this sitch seems like it's REALLY reaching."

"Green, evil, Go City," Ron listed off determinedly the facts as he knew them. "That's Shego or I'm not a natural blond."

"Trust me, Ron. No one is disputing your status as a blond."

Ron's pocket shook as Rufus choked on a derisive laugh at his partner's expense.

"But… ugh. FINE. It's a waste of all of our time, but fine. I'll find Kim. Lemme just…" His rapid typing was interrupted by Ron dropping the communicator and clapping his hands to his ears as the world around him suddenly thrummed with bass sound that rattled every building in the area. A second later a more clearly sounded explosion followed.

"Or you could just follow _that_," Wade grumbled from the face-down screen of the Kimmunicator.

Quickly snatching up the Kimmunicator, Ron tossed offa dismissive "Yeah, Wade, uh, stay on the line or something" then turned and ran for the source of the noise, more than confident that his BFF would be orbiting its epicenter.

As loud as the noise was, he was sure it couldn't be more than a few blocks off; and with Rufus helping to point out the direction, he ran the few blocks that were between the apparent explosions and himself.

Preparing himself for Drakken, or Killigan, or Dementor, or any of the usual suspects, Ron worked himself into switching gears into his sidekick thing. He was perfectly confident that with Kim at his side, there's nothing the usual suspects could pull that they couldn't untangle with spare time to stop at the Grande Bueno Nacho.

Coming upon a metal man the size of a bull elephant, surrounded by the twisted ruins of what Ron could only guess might have been cars at some point, unfortunately, did not qualify as a usual suspect. Once he fully took in the sight of the metal horror, gleaming and segmented, he barely skidded to a halt and tumbled behind a bus stop bench for cover, oblivious to how clearly visible he was through the wooden slats in the frame.

Thankfully, the mechanical monster seemed too busy attending to something diminutive in its arms, and seemed wholly unaware of the lone teenage boy sharing the abandoned riverside street.

"Okay," Ron said to the molerat that has scurried up to his shoulder. "First things first. Let us acknowledge the fact that that thing over there is easily the coolest thing I have ever seen."

Rufus nodded his assent to the sentiment. Satisfied, Ron pulled out the Kimmunicator and quickly called up Wade. "Now let's make sure Wade knows about Oz's missing Tin Man so we can get on with our day."

He frowned when the screen showed nothing but a flashing red message repeating the words; "Signal Lost. He pressed the on/off switch over and over again, ignoring his companion's criticizing as he tried to get the blue device to work. "No, I didn't forget to charge this thing! It doesn't even NEED to be charged! The battery is supposed to be able to outlive my grandkids!"

He glared over at Rufus who scoffed and squeaked out in argument, while gesturing at the monster. "Interference? Yah think so, buddy? Well I GUESS…"

The blond rubbed the back of his head and gave the machine another look. It seemed to be looking over the Go First Bank now, rather than whatever was in its left hand. "Then, I guess we'll just go back to the old plan and find Kim ours-…"

He frowned, a cold wet churning started in his gut. The massive figure had turned, using it's free arm to wrench the much smaller human-sized bank doorway off of the front of the building. The object dangling from the monster's hand was now clearly in Ron's view.

It was a child hanging limp from the machine's massive grasp. With the smoke and flames from the devastated streetside, he couldn't tell from the distance what state the child was in, or even details like age or gender.

"Rufus," Ron muttered, placing his pet on the street and handing him the Kimmunicator. "Change of plans, buddy. You get Kim, I'll… apparently throw my tender young life away doing something stupid on a truly awe-inspiring level. Man his would be so cooool if I wasn't about to bite the big naco."

Rufus' eyes widened in quickly dawning horror at the implication of his owner's statement. But as he was about to shout out his disapproval, he noticed the resolute "serious" expression on Ron's face. Reluctantly he nodded and gave a small solute before pressing a button on the side of the Kimmunicator. Small wheels suddenly deployed and Rufus hopped on, rocketing off down the street with another push of the button.

Seeing his companion drive off, Ron gave the metallic titan another despairing look. It was now inside the caved-in front of the bank building, and with its free hand, was pulling on the massive steel hinges of the bank safe. Much to Ron's surprise and shock, he could see the vault, which itself was the size of a small house, begin to move.

He shook off a growing dread as best he could, turning his attention to the small and upsettingly still figure in the monster's grasp. Steeling himself, he ran towards the monster while its back was turned, mentally humming the theme song from Fearless Ferret in his head to motivate some much needed heroics.

'_Okay, time for some thrilling youthful hero action!_' Ron thought as he prepared to clamber up onto the juggernaut's back and blind it with his coat, hopefully distracting it into dropping the child on its own. It seemed more than distracted enough dragging free the massive vault ripped from the foundation of the bank. There's no way the machine could hear a teen boy decidedly on the average side run up behind it during all that noise.

'_This is it,_' he thought while clenching his jaw at the horrific sight towering over him. '_Time to-_'

His heroism was interrupted by his body smashing mouth-first in a crackling invisible barrier and being repelled like a pinball into several bunched up trashcans ten feet back.

Once the stars cleared from his vision and his mouth started working, Ron managed to sufficiently sum up his heroic experience with a single syllable. "…ow."

His pain was quickly forgotten, however, when the hulking thing steadily turned around and fixed him with a sinister glare, looking him up and down where he laid in the pile of refuse. The electronic eyes crackled behind the tinted visor, almost irritably despite the unchanging expression.

"**THE HELL YOU THINKING, BOY?**" came the intimidating deep synthesized growl.

Ron tried to come up with a response that wouldn't immediately equate to him being reduced to the consistency of chunky naco sauce, but his eyes fell on the child, or rather, the girl dangling from the giant's grasp by one arm. Some sort of phosphorescent green stain was drenching her sweater from beneath the metal grip.

The girl turned to stare down at Ron, her onyx bangs plastered to her forehead with sweat. Her bloodshot eyes widened in delirious surprised recognition, "…Doofus?"

SHEGO?!" Ron exclaimed with a start, suddenly recognizing the small body locked in the giant's grasp.

"**YOU'RE A GENERATION OFF, KID,**" the massive figured grumbled, pointing a glowing fist down towards Ron's direction.

With a smirk, he raised his fist from its teen-ward direction, and sent a cacophonous shockwave towards the wall above Ron. The sidekick barely managed to pull one of the flimsy trashcans above him before he was entombed in falling masonry.

Blasting-Zone looked back at the shocked and horrified expression of the mangled pre-teen in his grasp. He gave an audible smirk and reached towards the freed vault's door.

"**HOPE YOU DON'T MIND DARK PLACES, GIRL.**" He smirked, placing a vibrating palm on top of the locking mechanism. With a whining and grinding pop, the lock gave and the vault door was easily pried open.

Chapter 13: End

_**-SSBC-**_

**Author's Notes: Sorry for the long wait. This fic is always in my thoughts, though, so unless I say otherwise it is neither dead nor dormant. I love all my long term fans for sticking with me this long, and hope you stick with me quite awhile longer. Thanks! ^_^  
**

**Once again, I dedicate this chapter to my awesome editor, Eoraptor. Couldn't have done it without yah, buddy!**


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